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1 


A    DAY'S    RIDE: 

a  iLife's  Eomance. 


TO   WHICH    IS    ADDED 


THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

BY 

CHAKLES    LEYEE. 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  BY  W.  CUBITT  COOKE. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 

1904. 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS. 


A  DAY'S   RIDE. 
Chapter  Page 

I.  I   PREPARB   TO   SEEK   ADVENTURES        .      *       .      .      .  1 

II.  BlONDEL   and   I   SET    OUT 11 

III.  Truth  not  always  in  Wine 21 

IV.  Pleasant  Reflections  on  Awakino  ....  29 
V.  The  Rosary  at  Inistioge 34 

VI.  My  Self-Examination 44 

VII.  Father  Dyke's  Letter 53 

VIII.  Imagination  stimulated  by  Brandy  and  Water  64 

IX.  My  Interest  in  a  Lady  Fellow-Traveller  .  76 

X.  The  Perils  of  my  Journey  to  Ostend       .     .  90 

XL  A  Jealous  Husband 104 

XII.  The  Duchy  of  Hesse-Kalbbratonstadt    .     .  118 

XIII.  I  CALL   AT    the   BriTISH   LEGATION 130 

XIV.  Shameful  Neglect  of  a  Public  Servant       .  139 

XV.  I  LECTURE    the    AmBASSADOR'S   SiSTER         .       .       .  144 

XVI.  Unpleasant     Turn    to    an    Agreeable   Con- 

verse        154 

XVII.  Mrs.  Keats  moves  my  Indignation    ....  161 
XVIII.  An  Impatient  Summons 167 

XIX.  Mrs.  Keats's  Mysterious  Communication      .  174 

XX.  The  Mystery  Explained 180 

XXI.  How  I  PLAY  the  Prince    .     i 188 


193058 


VI 

Chapteb 

xxn. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLI. 

XLII. 

XLIII. 

XLIV. 

XLV. 

XL  VI. 

XLVII. 

XL  VIII. 


CONTENTS. 

Page 

Incidents  of  the  Second  Day's  Journey  .  193 

Jealousy  unsupported  by  Courage  ...  201 

My  Candor  as  an  Autobiographer       .     .  207 

i  maintain  a  dignified  reserve      .    .    .  215 

Vaterchen  and  Tintefleck 221 

i   attempt  to   overthrow   social   preju- 
DICES       227 

Results  of  the  Experiment 235 

On  Foot  and  in  Low  Company     .     .     .     .  242 

Vaterchen's  Narrative 248 

A  Genius  for  Caricature 255 

I   RELIEVE   myself   OF   MY   PuRSE       ....  260 

My    Eloquence    before    the    Constance 

Magistrates 272 

A    Sumptuous     Dinner    and    an    Empty 

Pocket 284 

Mary  Crofton's  Commission 296 

Further  Intercourse  with  Harpar      .     .  308 

My  Explosion  at  the  Table  d'Hote     .     .  321 

The  Duel  with  Prince  Max 331 

On  the  Edge  of  a  Torrent 34S 

I    am    dragged   as   a   Prisoner   to  Feld- 

kirch 349 

The  Act  of  Accusation 353 

A  Glimpse  of  an  Old  Friend 367 

I  AM   confined   in    THE    AmBRAS    ScHLOSS         .  375 

A  Visit  from  the  Hon.  Grey  Buller       .  377 

My  Candid  Avowal  to  Kate  Herbert      .  391 

Captain  Rogers  stands  my  Friend       .     .  398 

My  Duelling  Ambition  again  Disappointed  406 
Final  Adventures  and  Settlement      .     .411 


CONTENTS. 


Yll 


THAT  BOY   OF   NORCOTrS. 

Chapter  Page 

I.     The  Trial 425 

II.     With  my  Mother 430 

in.     With  my  Father 436 

IV.     The  Villa  Malibran 443 

V.     A  First  Dinner-Party 451 

VI.     How  the  Days  went  over 456 

VII.    A  Private  Audience 463 

VIII.     A  Dark-room  Picture 470 

IX.     Madame  Cleremont 476 

X.     Planning  Pleasure 482 

XL     A  Birthday  Dinner 487 

XII.     The  Ball 494 

XIII.  A  Next  Morning 501 

XIV.  A  Good-Bye 507 

XV.     A  Terrible  Shock 515 

XVI.     Fiume 521 

XVII.     Hanserl  of  the  Yard 528 

XVIII.     The  Sail  across  the  Bay 534 

XIX.     At  the  Fete 541 

XX.     Our  Inner  Life 550 

XXL     The  Office 556 

XXII.     Unwished-for  Promotion 561 

XXITI.  The  Man  who  travelled  for  our  House  .  567 

XXIV.     My  Instructions 576 

XXV.     "  On  the  Koad  "  in  Croatia 582 

XXVI.     In  Hungary 589 

XXVII.      SCHLOSS  HUNYADI 593 

XXVIII.     The  Salon 600 

XXIX.  An  Unlooked-for  Meeting 605 

XXX.  Hasty  Tidings 615 

XXXI.     In  Sorrow 624 

XXXII.     The  End 630 


ILLUSTRATIONS   BY  W.   CUBITT   COOKE. 


Paob 

"i  looked    up    and    beheld   that    pale    and    gentle 

FACE " Frontispiece 

A  Jealous  Husband 112 

TiNTEFLECK 228 

THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"I    ORDERED     A     SpLENDID    WrEATH    OF     FlOWERS    TO    BE 

BROUGHT,  WHICH  I  PLACED  ON  HER   Brow  "    ....      498 

Parting  with  Fraulein  Sara 580 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


A  DAY'S  RIDE 

A  LIFE'S  ROMANCE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

I   PREPARE   TO    SEEK   ADVENTURES. 

It  has  been  said  that  any  man,  no  matter  how  small  and 
insignificant  the  post  he  may  have  filled  in  life,  who  will 
faithfully  record  the  events  in  which  he  has  borne  a  share, 
-even  though  incapable  of  himself  deriving  profit  from  the 
lessons  he  has  learned,  may  still  be  of  use  to  others, — 
sometimes  a  guide,  sometimes  a  warning.  I  hope  this  is 
true.  I  like  to  think  it  so,  for  I  like  to  think  that  even  I, 
—  A.  S.  P.,  — if  I  cannot  adorn  a  tale,  may  at  least  point  a 
moral. 

Certain  families  are  remarkable  for  the  way  in  which 
peculiar  gifts  have  been  transmitted  for  ages.  Some  have 
been  great  in  arms,  some  in  letters,  some  in  statecraft,  dis- 
playing in  successive  generations  the  same  high  qualities 
which  had  won  their  first  renown.  In  an  humble  fashion,  I 
may  lay  claim  to  belong  to  this  category.  My  ancestors 
have  been  apothecaries  for  one  hundred  and  forty-odd  jea.rs. 
Joseph  Potts,  "  drug  and  condiment  man,"  lived  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Anne,  at  Lower  Liffey  Street,  No.  87 ;  and  to  be 
remembered  passingly,  has  the  name  of  Mr.  Addison  amongst 
his  clients,  —  the  illustrious  writer  having,  as  it  would  appear, 
a  peculiar  fondness  for  ''  Pott's  linature,"  whatever  that  may 
have  been;  for  the  secret  died  out  with  my  distinguished 
forefather.     There  was  Michael  Joseph  Potts,  "  licensed  for 

1 


2  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

chemicals,"  in  Mary's  Abbey,  about  thirty  years  later ;  and 
so  we  come  on  to  Paul  Potts  and  Son,  and  then  to  Launcelot 
Peter  Potts,  "Pharmaceutical  Chemist  to  his  Excellency 
and  the  Irish  Court,"  the  father  of  him  who  now  bespeaks 
your  indulgence. 

My  father's  great  misfortune  in  life  was  the  ambition  to 
rise  above  the  class  his  family  had  adorned  for  ages.  He 
had,  as  he  averred,  a  soul  above  senna,  and  a  destiny  higher 
than  black  drop.  He  had  heard  of  a  tailor's  apprentice 
becoming  a  great  general.  He  had  himself  seen  a  wig- 
maker  elevated  to  the  woolsack ;  and  he  kept  continually 
repeating,  ' '  Mine  is  the  only  walk  in  life  that  leads  to  no 
high  rewards.  What  matters  it  whether  my  mixtures  be 
addressed  to  the  refined  organization  of  rank,  or  the  dura 
ilia  rasorum  ?  —  I  shall  live  and  die  an  apothecary.  From 
every  class  are  men  selected  for  honors  save  mine ;  and 
though  it  should  rain  baronetcies,  the  bloody  hand  would 
never  fall  to  the  lot  of  a  compounding  chemist." 

"What  do  you  intend  to  make  of  Algernon  Sydney,  Mr. 
Potts?  "  would  say  one  of  his  neighbors.  "  Bring  him  up  to 
your  own  business  ?  A  first-rate  connection  to  start  with  in 
life." 

"My  own  business,  sir?  I'd  rather  see  him  a  chimney- 
sweep^" 

"But,  after  all,  Mr.  Potts,  being  so  to  say,  at  the  head 
of  your  profession  —  " 

"It  is  not  a  profession,  sir.  It  is  not  even  a  trade. 
High  science  and  skill  have  long  since  left  our  insulted  and 
outraged  ranks  ;  we  are  mere  commission  agents  for  the  sale 
of  patent  quackeries.  What  respect  has  the  world  any 
longer  for  the  great  phials  of  ruby,  and  emerald,  and  marine 
blue,  which,  at  nightfall,  were  once  the  magical  emblems  of 
our  mysteries,  seen  afar  through  the  dim  mists  of  lowering 
atmospheres,  or  throwing  their  lurid  glare  upon  the  passers- 
by  ?  What  man,  now,  would  have  the  courage  to  adorn  his 
surgery  —  I  suppose  you  would  prefer  I  should  call  it  a 
'  shop '  —  with  skeleton-fishes,  snakes,  or  a  stuffed  alligator  ? 
Who,  in  this  age  of  chemical  infidelity,  would  surmount  his 
door  with  the  ancient  symbols  of  our  art,  —  the  golden  pestle 
and  mortar  ?    Why,  sir^   I  'd   as   soon  go   forth  to   apply 


I  PREPAKE  TO  SEEK  ADVENTURES.        3 

leeches  on  a  herald's  tabard,  or  a  suit  of  Milan  mail.  And 
what  have  they  done,  sir?"  he  would  ask,  with  a  roused  in- 
dignation,—  '*  what  have  they  done  by  their  reforms?  In 
invading  the  mystery  of  medicine,  they  have  ruined  its  pres- 
tige. The  precious  drops  you  once  regarded  as  the  essence 
of  an  elixir  vitae,  and  whose  efficacy  lay  in  your  faith,  are 
now  so  much  strychnine,  or  creosote,  which  you  take  with 
fear  and  think  over  with  foreboding." 

I  suppose  it  can  only  be  ascribed  to  that  perversity  which 
seems  a  great  element  in  human  nature,  that,  exactly  in  the 
direct  ratio  of  my  father's  dislike  to  his  profession  was  my 
fondness  for  it.  I  used  to  take  every  opportunity  of  stealing 
into  the  laboratory,  watching  intently  all  the  curious  pro- 
ceedings that  went  on  there,  learning  the  names  and  properties 
of  the  various  ingredients,  the  gases,  the  minerals,  the  salts, 
the  essences ;  and  although,  as  may  be  imagined,  science 
took,  in  these  narrow  regions,  none  of  her  loftiest  flights, 
they  were  to  me  the  most  marvellous  and  high-soaring  efforts 
of  human  intelligence.  I  was  just  at  that  period  of  life  — 
the  first  opening  of  adolescence  —  when  fiction  and  adven- 
ture have  the  strongest  hold  upon  our  nature,  my  mind  filled 
with  the  marvels  of  Eastern  romance,  and  imbued  with  a  sen- 
timent, strong  as  any  conviction,  that  I  was  destined  to  a 
remarkable  life.  I  passed  days  in  dreamland, — what  I 
should  do  in  this  or  that  emergency;  how  rescue  myself 
from  such  a  peril ;  how  profit  by  such  a  stroke  of  fortune ; 
by  what  arts  resist  the  machinations  of  this  adversary; 
how  conciliate  the  kind  favor  of  that.  In  the  wonderful 
tales  that  I  read,  frequent  mention  was  made  of  alchemy 
and  its  marvels;  now  the  search  was  for  some  secret  of 
endless  wealth ;  now,  it  was  for  undying  youth  or  undecay- 
ing  beauty ;  while  in  other  stories  I  read  of  men  who  had 
learned  how  to  read  the  thoughts,  trace  the  motives,  and 
ultimately  sway  the  hearts  of  their  fellow-men,  till  life 
became  to  them  a  mere  field  for  the  exercise  of  their  every 
will  and  caprice,  throwing  happiness  and  misery  about 
them  as  the  humor  inclined.  The  strange  life  of  the  labo- 
ratory fitted  itself  exactly  to  this  phase  of  my  mind. 

The  wonders  it  displayed,  the  endless  combinations  and 
transformations   it   effected,   were    as    marvellous    as    any 


4  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

that  imaginative  fiction  could  devise;  but  even  these  were 
nothing  compared  to  the  mysterious  influence  of  the  place 
itself  upon  my  nervous  system,  particularly  when  I  found 
myself  there  alone.  In  the  tales  with  which  my  head  was 
filled,  many  of  them  the  wild  fancies  of  Grimm,  Hoffman, 
or  Musaeus,  nothing  was  more  common  than  to  read  how 
some  eager  student  of  the  black  art,  deep  in  the  mystery  of 
forbidden  knowledge,  had,  by  some  chance  combination,  by 
some  mere  accidental  admixture  of  this  ingredient  with  that, 
suddenly  arrived  at  the  great  secret,  that  terrible  mystery 
which  for  centuries  and  centuries  had  evaded  human  search. 
How  often  have  I  watched  the  fluid  as  it  boiled  and  bubbled 
in  the  retort,  till  I  thought  the  air  globules,  as  they  came  to 
the  surface,  observed  a  certain  rhythm  and  order.  Were 
these,  words?  Were  they  symbols  of  some  hidden  virtue  in 
the  liquid?  Were  there  intelligences  to  whom  these  could 
speak,  and  thus  reveal  a  wondrous  history?  And  then,  again, 
with  what  an  intense  eagerness  have  I  gazed  on  the  lurid 
smoke  that  arose  from  some  smelting  mass,  now  fancying 
that  the  vapor  was  about  to  assume  form  and  substance,  and 
now  imagining  that  it  lingered  lazily,  as  though  waiting  for 
some  cabalistic  word  of  mine  to  give  it  life  and  being  ?  How 
heartily  did  I  censure  the  folly  that  had  ranked  alchemy 
amongst  the  absurdities  of  human  invention !  Why,  rather, 
had  not  its  facts  been  treasured  and  its  discoveries  recorded, 
so  that  in  some  future  age  a  great  intelligence  arising  might 
classify  and  arrange  them,  showing  at  least  what  were  prac- 
ticable and  what  were  only  evasive.  Alchemists  were,  cer- 
tainly, men  of  pure  lives,  self-denying  and  humble.  They 
made  their  art  no  stepping-stone  to  worldly  advancement  or 
success ;  they  sought  no  favor  from  princes,  nor  any  popu- 
larity from  the  people ;  but,  retired  and  estranged  from  all 
the  pleasures  of  the  world,  followed  their  one  pursuit,  un- 
noticed and  unfriended.  How  cruel,  therefore,  to  drag  them 
forth  from  their  lonely  cells,  and  expose  them  to  the  gaping 
crowd  as  devil  worshippers !  How  inhuman  to  denounce 
men  whose  only  crimes  were  lives  of  solitude  and  study ! 
The  last  words  of  Peter  von  Vordt,  burned  for  a  wizard,  at 
Haarlem,  in  1306,  were,  "Had  they  left  this  poor  head  a 
little  longer  on  my  shoulders,  it  would  have  done  more  for 
human  happiness  than  all  this  bonfire  !  " 


I  PREPARE  TO  SEEK  ADVENTURES.         6 

How  rash  and  presumptuous  is  it,  besides,  to  set  down 
any  fixed  limits  to  man's  knowledge !  Is  not  every  age  an 
advance  upon  its  predecessors,  and  are  not  the  commonest 
acts  of  our  present  civilization  perfect  miracles  as  compared 
with  the  usages  of  our  ancestors  ?  But  why  do  I  linger  on 
this  theme,  which  I  only  introduced  to  illustrate  the  temper 
of  my  boyish  days  ?  As  I  grew  older,  books  of  chivalry  and 
romance  took  possession  of  my  mind,  and  my  passion  grew 
for  lives  of  adventure.  Of  all  kinds  of  existence,  none 
seemed  to  me  so  enviable  as  that  of  those  men  who,  regard- 
ing life  as  a  vast  ocean,  hoisted  sail,  and  set  forth,  not 
knowing  nor  caring  whither,  but  trusting  to  their  own  manly 
spirit  for  extrication  out  of  whatever  difficulties  might  beset 
them.  What  a  narrow  thing,  after  all,  was  our  modern  civ- 
ilization, with  all  its  forms  and  conventionalities,  with  its 
gradations  of  rank  and  its  orders !  How  hopeless  for  the 
adventurous  spirit  to  war  with  the  stern  discipline  of  an  age 
that  marshalled  men  in  ranks  like  soldiers,  and  told  that  each 
could  only  rise  by  successive  steps !  How  often  have  I  won- 
dered was  there  any  more  of  adventure  left  in  life  ?  "Were 
there  incidents  in  store  for  him  who,  in  the  true  spirit  of  an 
adventurer,  should  go  in  search  of  them  ?  As  for  the  newer 
worlds  of  Australia  and  America,  they  did  not  possess  for 
me  much  charm.  No  great  association  linked  them  with  the 
past ;  no  echo  came  out  of  them  of  that  heroic  time  of  feudal- 
ism, so  peopled  with  heart-stirring  characters.  The  life  of 
the  bush  or  the  prairie  had  its  incidents,  but  they  were  vul- 
gar and  commonplace ;  and  worse,  the  associates  and  com- 
panions of  them  were  more  vulgar  still.  Hunting  down 
Pawnees  or  buffaloes  was  as  mean  and  ignoble  a  travesty  of 
feudal  adventure  as  was  the  gold  diggings  at  Bendigo  of  the 
learned  labors  of  the  alchemist.  The  perils  were  unexciting, 
the  rewards  prosaic  and  commonplace.  No.  I  felt  that 
Europe  —  in  some  remote  regions  —  and  the  East  —  in  cer- 
tain less  visited  tracts  —  must  be  the  scenes  best  suited  to 
my  hopes.  With  considerable  labor  I  could  spell  my  way 
through  a  German  romance,  and  I  saw,  in  the  stories  of 
Fouque,  and  even  of  Goethe,  that  there  still  survived  in  the 
mind  of  Germany  many  of  the  features  which  gave  the  color- 
ing to  a  feudal  period.     There  was,  at  least,  a  dreamy  in- 


6  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

difference  to  the  present,  a  careless  abandonment  to  what 
the  hour  might  bring  forth,  so  long  as  the  dreamer  was  left  to 
follow  out  his  fancies  in  all  their  mysticism,  that  lifted  men 
out  of  the  vulgarities  of  this  work-o'-day  world ;  and  I  longed 
to  see  a  society  where  learning  consented  to  live  upon  the 
humblest  pittance,  and  beauty  dwelt  unflattered  in  obscurity. 

I  was  now  entering  upon  manhood ;  and  my  father  —  hav- 
ing, with  that  ambition  so  natural  to  an  Irish  parent  who 
aspires  highly  for  his  only  son,  destined  me  for  the  bar  — 
made  me  a  student  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

What  a  shock  to  all  the  romance  of  my  life  were  the  scenes 
into  which  I  now  was  thrown!  With  hundreds  of  com- 
panions to  choose  from,  I  found  not  one  congenial  to  me. 
The  reading  men,  too  deeply  bent  upon  winning  honors, 
would  not  waste  a  thought  upon  what  could  not  advance 
their  chances  of  success.  The  idle,  only  eager  to  get  through 
their  career  undetected  in  their  ignorance,  passed  lives  of 
wild  excess  or  stupid  extravagance. 

What  was  I  to  do  amongst  such  associates  ?  What  I  did 
do,  —  avoid  them,  shun  them,  live  in  utter  estrangement  from 
all  their  haunts,  their  ways,  and  themselves.  If  the  proud 
man  who  has  achieved  success  in  life  encounters  immense 
difficulties  when,  separating  himself  from  his  fellows,  he 
acknowledges  no  companionship,  nor  admits  any  to  his  con- 
fidence, it  may  be  imagined  what  must  be  the  situation  of 
one  who  adopts  this  isolation  without  any  claim  to  supe- 
riority whatever.  As  can  easily  be  supposed,  I  was  the  butt 
of  my  fellow  students,  the  subject  of  many  sarcasms  and 
practical  jokes.  The  whole  of  my  Freshman  year  was  a 
martyrdom.  I  had  no  peace,  was  rhymed  on  by  poet- 
asters, caricatured  by  draughtsmen,  till  the  name  of  Potts 
became  proverbial  for  all  that  was  eccentric,  ridiculous,  and 
absurd. 

Curran  has  said,  "One  can't  draw  an  indictment  against 
a  nation;"  in  the  same  spirit  did  I  discover  "one  cannot 
fight  his  whole  division."  For  a  while  I  believe  I  experi- 
enced a  sort  of  heroism  in  my  solitary  state ;  I  felt  the  spirit 
of  a  Coriolanus  in  my  heart,  and  muttered,  "T  banish  you  !  " 
but  this  self-supplied  esteem  did  not  last  long,  and  I  fell 
into  a  settled  melancholy.     The  horrible  truth  was  gradually 


I  PREPARE  TO  SEEK  ADVENTURES.  7 

forcing  its  way  slowly,  clearly,  through  the  mists  of  my 
mind,  that  there  might  be  something  in  all  this  sarcasm, 
and  I  can  remember  to  this  hour,  the  day  —  ay,  and  the  very 
place  —  wherein  the  questions  flashed  across  me:  Is  my 
hair  as  limp,  my  nose  as  long,  my  back  as  arched,  my  eyes 
as  green  as  they  have  pictured  them  ?  Do  I  drawl  so  fear- 
fully in  my  speech?  Do  I  drag  my  heavy  feet  along  so 
ungracefully?  Good  heavens!  have  they  possibly  a  grain 
of  fact  to  sustain  all  this  fiction  against  me? 

And  if  so,  —  horrible  thought,  —  am  I  the  stuff  to  go  forth 
and  seek  adventures?  Oh,  the  ineffable  bitterness  of  this 
reflection !  I  remember  it  in  all  its  anguish,  and  even  now, 
after  years  of  such  experience  as  have  befallen  few  men,  I 
can  recall  the  pain  it  cost  me.  While  I  was  yet  in  the 
paroxysm  of  that  sorrow,  which  assured  me  that  I  was  not 
made  for  doughty  deeds,  nor  to  captivate  some  fair  princess, 
I  chanced  to  fall  upon  a  little  German  volume  entitled 
"Wald  Wandelungen  und  Abentheure,"  von  Heinrich 
Stebbe.  Forest  rambles  and  adventures,  and  of  a  student, 
too!  for  so  Herr  Stebbe  announces  himself,  in  a  short  in- 
troduction to  the  reader.  I  am  not  going  into  any  account 
of  his  book.  It  is  in  Voss's  Leipzig  Catalogue,  and  not 
unworthy  of  perusal  by  those  who  are  sufficiently  imbued 
with  Germanism  to  accept  the  changeful  moods  of  a  mysti- 
cal mind,  with  all  its  visionary  glimpses  of  light  and  shade, 
its  doubts,  fears,  hopes,  and  fancies,  in  lieu  of  real  incidents 
and  actual  events.  Of  adventures,  properly  speaking,  he 
had  none.  The  people  he  met,  the  scenes  in  which  he  bore 
his  part,  were  as  commonplace  as  need  be.  The  whole  narra- 
tive never  soared  above  that  bread  and  butter  life  —  Butter- 
brod  Leben  —  which  Germany  accepts  as  romance;  but, 
meanwhile,  the  reflex  of  whatever  passed  around  him  in 
the  narrator's  own  mind  was  amusing;  so  ingeniously 
did  he  contrive  to  interweave  the  imaginary  with  the 
actual,  throwing  over  the  most  ordinary  pictures  of  life 
a  sort  of  hazy  indistinctness,  —  meet  atmosphere  for  mys- 
tical creation. 

If  I  did  not  always  sympathize  with  him  in  his  brain- 
wrought  wanderings,  I  never  ceased  to  take  pleasure  in  his 
description  of  scenery,  and  the  heartfelt  delight  he  experi- 


8  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

enced  in  journeying  through  a  world  so  beautiful  and  so 
varied.  There  was  also  a  little  woodcut  frontispiece  which 
took  my  fancy  much,  representing  him  as  he  stood  leaning 
on  his  horse's  mane,  gazing  rapturously  on  the  Elbe,  from 
one  of  the  cliffs  off  the  Saxon  Switzerland.  How  peaceful 
he  looked,  with  his  long  hair  waving  gracefully  on  his  neck, 
and  hi«  large  soft  eyes  turned  on  the  scene  beneath  him! 
His  clasped  hands,  as  they  lay  on  the  horse's  mane,  im- 
parted a  sort  of  repose,  too,  that  seemed  to  say,  *'I  could 
linger  here  ever  so  long."  Nor  was  the  horse  itself  without 
a  significance  in  the  picture;  he  was  a  long-maned,  long- 
tailed,  patient-looking  beast,  well  befitting  an  enthusiast, 
who  doubtless  took  but  little  heed  of  how  he  went  or  where. 
If  his  lazy  eye  denoted  lethargy,  his  broad  feet  and  short 
legs  vouched  for  his  sure-footedness. 

Why  should  not  I  follow  Stebbe's  example?  Surely  there 
was  nothing  too  exalted  or  extravagant  in  his  plan  of  life. 
It  was  simply  to  see  the  world  as  it  was,  with  the  aid  of 
such  combinations  as  a  fertile  fancy  could  contribute ;  not 
to  distort  events,  but  to  arrange  them,  just  as  the  landscape 
painter  in  the  license  of  his  craft  moves  that  massive  rock 
more  to  the  foreground,  and  throws  that  stone  pine  a  little 
further  to  the  left  of  his  canvas.  There  was,  indeed, 
nothing  to  prevent  my  trying  the  experiment.  Ireland  was 
not  less  rich  in  picturesque  scenery  than  Germany,  and  if 
she  boasted  no  such  might}?^  stream  as  the  Elbe,  the  banks 
of  the  Blackwater  and  the  Nore  were  still  full  of  woodland 
beauty;  and,  then,  there  was  lake  scenery  unrivalled 
throughout   Europe. 

I  turned  to  Stebbe's  narrative  for  details  of  his  outfit. 
His  horse  he  bought  at  Nordheim  for  two  hundred  and 
forty  gulden,  —  about  ten  pounds ;  his  saddle  and  knapsack 
cost  him  a  little  more  than  forty  shillings ;  with  his  map, 
guide-book,  compass,  and  some  little  extras,  all  were  com- 
prised within  twenty  pounds  sterling,  —  surely  not  too  costly 
an  equipage  for  one  who  was  adventuring  on  a  sea  wide  as 
the  world  itself. 

As  my  trial  was  a  mere  experiment,  to  be  essayed  on  the 
most  limited  scale,  I  resolved  not  to  buy,  but  only  hire  a 
horse,  taking  him  by  the  day,  so  that  if  any  change  of  mind 


I  PREPARE   TO  SEEK  ADVENTUEffeS.  9* 

or  purpose  supervened  I  should  not  find  myself  in  any 
embarrassment. 

A  fond  uncle  had  just  left  me  a  legacy  of  a  hundred 
pounds,  which,  besides,  was  the  season  of  the  long  vacation ; 
thus  did  everything  combine  to  favor  the  easy  execution  of 
a  plan  which  I  determined  forthwith  to  put  into  practice. 

"Something  quiet  and  easy  to  ride,  sir,  you  said?"  re- 
peated Mr.  Dycer  after  me,  as  I  entered  his  great  establish- 
ment for  the  sale  and  hire  of  horses.  "Show  the  gentleman 
four  hundred  and  twelve." 

"Oh,  Heaven  forbid!"  I  exclaimed,  in  ignorance;  "such 
a  number  would  only  confuse  me." 

"You  mistake  me,  sir,"  blandly  interposed  the  dealer; 
"I  meant  the  horse  that  stands  at  that  number.  Lead  him 
out,  Tim.  He  's  gentle  as  a  lamb,  sir,  and,  if  you  find  he 
suits  you,  can  be  had  for  a  song,  —  I  mean  a  ten  pound 
note." 

"Has  he  a  long  mane  and  tail?"  I  asked,  eagerly. 

"The  longest  tail  and  the  fullest  mane  I  ever  saw.  But 
here  he  comes."  And  with  the  word,  there  advanced 
towards  us,  at  a  sort  of  easy  amble,  a  small-sized  cream- 
colored  horse,  with  white  mane  and  tail.  Knowing  nothing 
of  horseflesh,  I  was  fain  to  content  myself  with  such  obser- 
vations as  other  studies  might  supply  me  with;  and  so  I 
closely  examined  his  head,  which  was  largely  developed  in 
the  frontal  region,  with  moral  qualities  fairly  displayed. 
He  had  memory  large,  and  individuality  strong ;  nor  was  wit, 
if  it  exist  in  the  race,  deficient.  Over  the  orbital  region 
the  depressions  were  deep  enough  to  contain  my  closed  fist, 
and  when  I  remarked  upon  them  to  the  groom,  he  said, 
"  'T  is  his  teeth  will  tell  you  the  ray  son  of  that; "  a  remark 
which  I  suspect  was  a  sarcasm  upon  my  general  ignorance. 

I  liked  the  creature's  eye.  It  was  soft,  mild,  and  contem- 
plative; and  although  not  remarkable  for  brilliancy,  pos- 
sessed a  subdued  lustre  that  promised  well  for  temper  and 
disposition. 

"Ten  shillings  a  day,  — make  it  three  half-crowns  by  the 
week,  sir.  You'll  never  hit  upon  the  like  of  him  again," 
said  the  dealer,  hurriedly,  as  he  passed  me,  on  his  other 
avocations. 


10  'a  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"Better  not  lose  him,  sir;  he's  well  known  at  Batty's, 
and  they  '11  have  him  in  the  circus  again  if  they  see  him. 
Wish  you  saw  him  with  his  fore-legs  on  a  table,  ringing 
the  bell  for  his  breakfast." 

"I'll  take  him  by  the  week,  though,  probably,  a  day  or 
two  will  be  all  I  shall  need." 

"Four  hundred  and  twelve  for  Mr.  Potts,"  Dycer 
screamed  out.  "Shoes  removed,  and  to  be  ready  in  the 
morning." 


CHAPTER  II. 

BLONDEL   AND    I    SET   OUT. 

I  HAD  heard  aud  read  frequently  of  the  exhilarating  sensa- 
tions of  horse  exercise.  My  fellow-students  were  full  of 
stories  of  the  hunting-field  and  the  race-course.  Wherever, 
indeed,  a  horse  figured  in  a  narrative,  there  was  an  almost 
certainty  of  meeting  some  incident  to  stir  the  blood  and 
warm  up  enthusiasm.  Even  the  passing  glimpses  one 
caught  of  sporting- prints  in  shop-windows  were  suggestive 
of  the  pleasure  imparted  by  a  noble  and  chivalrous  pastime. 
I  never  closed  my  eyes  all  night,  revolving  such  thoughts 
in  my  head.  I  had  so  worked  up  my  enthusiasm  that  I 
felt  like  one  who  is  about  to  cross  the  frontier  of  some  new 
land  where  people,  language,  ways,  and  habits  are  all 
unknown  to  him.  ''By  this  hour  to-morrow  night,"  thought 
I,  "I  shall  be  in  the  land  of  strangers,  who  have  never 
seen,  nor  so  much  as  heard  of  me.  There  will  invade  no 
traditions  of  the  scoffs  and  jibes  I  have  so  long  endured; 
none  will  have  received  the  disparaging  estimate  of  my 
abilities,  which  my  class-fellows  love  to  propagate;  I 
shall  simply  be  the  traveller  who  arrived  at  sundown 
mounted  on  a  cream-colored  palfrey,  —  a  stranger,  sad- 
looking,  but  gentle,  withal,  of  courteous  address,  blandly 
demanding  lodging  for  the  night.  "Look  to  my  horse, 
ostler,"  shall  I  say,  as  I  enter  the  honeysuckle-covered  porch 
of  the  inn.  "Blonder'  — I  will  call  him  Blondel  —  "is 
accustomed  to  kindly  usage."  With  what  quiet  dignity, 
the  repose  of  a  conscious  position,  do  I  follow  the  landlord 
as  he  shows  me  to  my  room.  It  is  humble,  but  neat  and 
orderly.  I  am  contented.  I  tell  him  so.  I  am  sated  and 
wearied  of  luxury ;  sick  of  a  gilded  and  glittering  existence. 
I  am  in  search  of  repose  and  solitude.     I  order  my  tea ;  and, 


12  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

if  I  ask  the  name  of  the  village,  I  take  care  to  show  by  my 
inattention  that  I  have  not  heard  the  answer,  nor  do  I  care 
for  it. 

Now  I  should  like  to  hear  how  they  are  canvassing  me  in 
the  bar,  and  what  they  think  of  me  in  the  stable.  I  am, 
doubtless,  a  peer,  or  a  peer's  eldest  son.  I  am  a  great 
writer,  the  wondrous  poet  of  the  day ;  or  the  pre-Raphaelite 
artist;  or  I  am  a  youth  heart-broken  by  infidelity  in  love; 
or,  mayhap,  a  dreadful  criminal.  I  liked  this  last  the  best, 
the  interest  was  so  intense ;  not  to  say  that  there  is,  to  men 
who  are  not  constitutionally  courageous,  a  strong  pleasure 
in  being  able  to  excite  terror  in  others. 

But  I  hear  a  horse's  feet  on  the  silent  street.  I  look  out. 
Day  is  just  breaking.  Tim  is  holding  Blondel  at  the  door. 
My  hour  of  adventure  has  struck,  and  noiselessly  descend- 
ing the  stairs,  I  issue  forth. 

"He  is  a  trifle  tender  on  the  fore-feet,  your  honor,"  said 
Tim,  as  I  mounted;  "but  when  you  get  him  off  the  stones 
on  a  nice  piece  of  soft  road,  he  '11  go  like  a  four-year-old." 

"But  he  is  young,  Tim,  is  n't  he?  "  I  asked,  as  I  tendered 
him  my  half-crown. 

"Well,  not  to  tell  your  honor  a  lie,  he  is  not,"  said  Tim, 
with  the  energy  of  a  man  whose  veracity  had  cost  him  little 
less  than  a  spasm. 

"How  old  would  you  call  him,  then?"  I  asked,  in  that 
affected  ease  that  seemed  to  say,  "Not  that  it  matters  to  me 
if  he  were  Methuselah." 

"I  could  n't  come  to  his  age  exactly,  your  honor,"  he  re- 
plied, "  but  I  remember  seeing  him  fifteen  years  ago,  danc- 
ing a  hornpipe,  more  by  token  for  his  own  benefit ;  it  was  at 
Cooke's  Circus,  in  Abbey  Street,  and  there  wasn't  a  hair's 
difference  between  him  now  and  then,  except,  perhaps,  that 
he  had  a  star  on  the  forehead,  where  you  just  see  the  mark 
a  little  darker  now." 

"But  that  is  a  star,  plain  enough,"  said  I,  half  vexed. 

"Well,  it  is,  and  it  is  not,"  muttered  Tim,  doggedly,  for 
he  was  not  quite  satisfied  with  my  right  to  disagree  with 
him. 

"He's  gentle,  at  all  events?"  I  said,  more  confidently. 

"He's  a  lamb!"  replied  Tim.     "If  you  were  to  see  the 


BLONDEL  AND  I  SET  OUT.  13 

way  he  lets  the  Turks  run  over  his  back,  when  he 's 
wounded  in  Timour  the  Tartar,  you  would  n't  believe  he 
was  a  livin'  baste." 

"Poor  fellow!"  said  I,  caressing  him.     He  turned  his 
mild  eye  upon  me,  and  we  were  friends  from  that  hour. 

What  a  glorious  morning  it  was,  as  I  gained  the  outskirts 
of  the  city,  and  entered  one  of  those  shady  alleys  that  lead 
to  the  foot  of  the  Dublin  mountains !     The  birds  were  open- 
ing their  morning  hymn,  and  the  earth,  still  fresh  from  the 
night  dew,   sent  up  a  thousand   delicious  perfumes.     The 
road  on  either  side  was  one  succession  of  handsome  villas 
or  ornamental  cottages,  whose  grounds  were  laid  out  in  the 
perfection  of  landscape  gardening.     There  were   but  few 
persons  to  be  seen  at  that  early  hour,  and  in  the  smokeless 
chimneys  and  closed  shutters  I  could  read  that  all  slept,  — 
slept  in  that  luxurious  hour  when  Nature  unveils,  and  seems 
to  revel   in   the   sense   of    unregarded  loveliness.      "Ah, 
Potts,"  said  I,  "thou  hast  chosen  the  wiser  part;  thou  wilt 
see  the  world  after  thine  own  guise,  and  not  as  others  see 
it."     Has  my  reader  not  often  noticed  that  in  a  picture- 
gallery  the  slightest  change  of  place,  a  move  to  the  left  or 
right,  a  chance  approach  or  retreat,  suflSces  to  make  what 
seemed  a  hazy  confusion  of  color  and  gloss  a  rich  and  beau- 
tiful picture?     So  is  it  in  the  actual  world,  and   just  as 
much  depends  on  the  point  from  which  objects  are  viewed. 
Do  not  be  discouraged,  then,  by  the  dark  aspects  of  events. 
It  may  be  that  by  the  slightest  move  to  this  side  or  to  that, 
some  unlooked-for  sunlight  shall  slant  down  and  light  up  all 
the  scene.     Thus  musing,  I  gained  a  little  grassy  strip  that 
ran  along  the  roadside,  and,  gently  touching  Blondel  with 
my  heel,  he  broke  out  into  a  delightful  canter.     The  motion, 
so  easy  and  swimming,  made  it  a  perfect  ecstasy  to  sit  there 
floating  at  will  through  the  thin  air,  with  a  moving  panorama 
of  wood,  water,  and  mountain  around  me. 

Emerging  at  length  from  the  thickly  wooded  plain,  I  began 
the  ascent  of  the  Three  Rock  Mountain,  and,  in  my  slack- 
ened speed,  had  full  time  to  gaze  upon  the  bay  beneath  me, 
broken  with  many  a  promontory,  backed  by  the  broad  bluff 
of  Howth,  and  the  more  distant  Lambay.  No,  it  is  not  finer 
than  Naples.     I  did  not  say  it  was ;  but,  seeing  it  as  I  then 


14  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

saw  it,  I  thought  it  could  not  be  surpassed.  Indeed,  I  went 
further,  and  defied  Naples  in  this  fashion :  — 

**  Though  no  volcano's  lurid  light 
Over  thy  blue  sea  steals  along, 
Nor  Pescator  beguiles  the  night 
With  cadence  of  his  simple  song ; 

*'  Though  none  of  dark  Calabria's  daughters 
With  tinkling  lute  thy  echoes  wake, 
Mingling  their  voices  w^ith  the  waters. 
As  'neath  the  prow  the  ripples  break; 

"  Although  no  cliffs  with  myrtle  crown'd. 
Reflected  in  thy  tide,  are  seen, 
Nor  olives,  bending  to  the  ground, 
Relieve  the  laurel's  darker  green ; 

"Yet -yet  —  " 

Ah,  there  was  the  difficulty,  —  I  had  begun  with  the  plain- 
tiff, and  I  really  hadn't  a  word  to  say  for  the  defendant; 
and  so,  voting  comparisons  odious,  I  set  forward  on  my 
journey. 

As  I  rode  into  Enniskerry  to  breakfast,  I  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  overhearing  some  very  flattering  comments  upon 
Blondel,  which  rather  consoled  me  for  some  less  laudatory 
remarks  upon  my  own  horsemanship.  By  the  way,  can 
there  possibly  be  a  more  ignorant  sarcasm  than  to  say  a 
man  rides  like  a  tailor?  Why,  of  all  trades,  who  so  con- 
stantly sits  straddle-legged  as  a  tailor?  and  yet  he  is 
especial  mark  of  this  impertinence. 

I  pushed  briskly  on  after  breakfast,  and  soon  found  my- 
self in  the  deep  shady  woods  that  lead  to  the  Dargle.  I 
hurried  through  the  picturesque  demesne,  associated  as  it 
was  with  a  thousand  little  vulgar  incidents  of  city  junket- 
ings, and  rode  on  for  the  Glen  of  the  Downs.  Blondel  and 
I  had  now  established  a  most  admirable  understanding  with 
each  other.  It  was  a  sort  of  reciprocity  by  which  /  bound 
myself  never  to  control  him^  he  in  turn  consenting  not  to 
unseat  me.  He  gave  the  initiative  to  the  system,  by  set- 
ting off  at  his  pleasant  little  rocking  canter  whenever  he 
chanced   upon  a  bit  of  favorable  ground,  and   invariably 


BLONDEL  AND  I  SET  OUT.  15 

pulled  up  when  the  road  was  stony  or  uneven;  thus  showing 
me  that  he  was  a  beast  with  what  Lord  Brougham  would  call 
.*'a  wise  discretion."  In  like  manner  he  would  halt  to  pluck 
any  stray  ears  of  wild  oats  that  grew  along  the  hedge  sides, 
and  occasionally  slake  his  thirst  at  convenient  streamlets. 
If  I  dismounted  to  walk  at  his  side,  he  moved  along  unheld, 
bis  head  almost  touching  my  elbow,  and  his  plaintive  blue 
eye  mildly  beaming  on  me  with  an  expression  that  almost 
spoke,  —  nay,  it  did  speak.  I  'm  sure  I  felt  it,  as  though  I 
could  swear  to  it,  whispering,  "Yes,  Potts,  two  more  friend- 
less creatures  than  ourselves  are  not  easy  to  find.  The 
world  wants  not  either  of  us ;  not  that  we  abuse  it,  despise 
it,  or  treat  it  ungenerously,  —  rather  the  reverse,  we  incline 
favorably  towards  it,  and  would,  occasion  serving,  befriend 
it ;  but  we  are  not,  so  to  say,  '  of  it.  *  There  may  be,  here 
and  there,  a  man  or  a  horse  that  would  understand  or  ap- 
preciate us,  but  they  stand  alone, —  they  are  not  belonging 
to  classes.  They  are,  like  ourselves,  exceptional."  If 
his  expression  said  this  much,  there  was  much  unspoken 
melancholy  in  his  sad  glance,  also,  which  seemed  to  say, 
"What  a  deal  of  sorrow  could  I  reveal  if  I  might!  — what 
injuries,  what  wrong,  what  cruel  misconceptions  of  my 
nature  and  disposition,  what  mistaken  notions  of  my  char- 
acter and  intentions !  What  pretentious  stupidity,  too,  have 
I  seen  preferred  before  me,  —  creatures  with,  mayhap,  a 
glossier  coat  or  a  more  silky  forelock  —  "  "  Ah,  Blondel, 
take  courage, —  men  are  just  as  ungenerous,  just  as  erring!  " 
"Not  that  I  have  not  had  my  triumphs,  too,"  he  seemed  to 
say,  as,  cocking  his  ears,  and  ambling  with  a  more  elevated 
toss  of  the  head,  his  tail  would  describe  an  arch  like  a 
waterfall;  "no  salmon-colored  silk  stockings  danced  sara- 
bands on  my  back ;  I  was  always  ridden  in  the  Haute  Ecole 
by  Monsieur  I'Etrier  himself,  the  stately  gentleman  in  jack- 
boots and  long-waisted  dress-coat,  whose  five  minutes  no 
persuasive  bravos  could  ever  prolong."  I  thought  —  nay, 
I  was  certain  at  times  —  that  I  could  read  in  his  thoughtful 
face  the  painful  sorrows  of  one  who  had  outlived  popular 
favor,  and  who  had  survived  to  see  himself  supplanted  and 
dethroned. 

There  are  no  two  destinies  which  chime  in  so  well  together 


16  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

as  that  of  him  who  is  beaten  down  by  sheer  distrust  of  him- 
self, and  that  of  the  man  who  has  seen  better  days.  Al- 
though the  one  be  just  entering  on  life,  while  the  other  is. 
going  out  of  it,  if  they  meet  on  the  threshold,  they  stop  to 
form  a  friendship.  Now,  though  Blondel  was  not  a  man, 
he  supplied  to  my  friendlessness  the  place  of  one. 

The  sun  was  near  its  setting,  as  I  rode  down  the  little  hill 
into  the  village  of  Ashford,  a  picturesque  little  spot  in  the 
midst  of  mountains,  and  with  a  bright  clear  stream  bound- 
ing through  it,  as  fearlessly  as  though  in  all  the  liberty 
of  open  country.  I  tried  to  make  my  entrance  what  stage 
people  call  effective.  I  threw  myself,  albeit  a  little  jaded, 
into  an  attitude  of  easy  indifference,  slouched  my  hat  to 
one  side,  and  suffered  the  sprig  of  laburnum,  with  which  I 
had  adorned  it,  to  droop  in  graceful  guise  over  one  shoulder. 
The  villagers  stared;  some  saluted  me;  and  taken,  perhaps, 
by  the  cool  acquiescence  of  my  manner,  as  I  returned  the 
courtesy,  seemed  well  disposed  to  believe  me  of  some  note. 

I  rode  into  the  little  stable-yard  of  the  ''Lamb  "  and  dis- 
mounted. I  gave  up  my  horse,  and  walked  into  the  inn.  I 
don't  know  how  others  feel  it,  —  I  greatly  doubt  if  they  will 
have  the  honesty  to  tell,  —  but  for  myself,  I  confess  that  I 
never  entered  an  inn  or  an  hotel  without  a  most  uncom- 
fortable conflict  within:  a  struggle  made  up  of  two  very 
antagonistic  impulses,  —  the  wish  to  seem  something  im- 
portant, and  a  lively  terror  lest  the  pretence  should  turn 
out  to  be  costly.  Thus  swayed  by  opposing  motives,  I 
sought  a  compromise  by  assuming  that  I  was  incog. ;  for 
the  present  a  nobody,  to  be  treated  without  any  marked 
attention,  and  to  whom  the  acme  of  respect  would  be  a 
seeming  indifference. 

"What  is  your  village  called?"  I  said,  carelessly,  to  the 
waiter,  as  he  laid  the  cloth. 

"Ashford,  your  honor.  'T  is  down  in  all  the  books,"  an- 
swered the  waiter. 

"Is  it  noted  for  anything,  or  is  there  anything  remarkable 
in  the  neighborhood  ?  " 

"Indeed,  there  is,  sir,  and  plenty.  There  's  Glenmalure 
and  the  Devil's  Glen;  and  there  's  Mr.  Snow  Malone's  place, 
that  everybody  goes  to   see:    and  there's   the  fishing  of 


BLONDEL  AND  I  SET  OUT.  17 

Doyle's  river,  —  trout,  eight,  nine,  maybe  twelve,  pounds* 
weight;  and  there  's  Mr.  Reeve's  cottage  —  a  Swiss  cottage 
belike  —  at  Kinmacreedy ;  but,  to  be  sure,  there  must  be  an 
order  for  that." 

"I  never  take  much  trouble,"  I  said  indolently.  "Who 
have  you  got  in  the  house  at  present?" 

"There  's  young  Lord  Keldrum,  sir,  and  two  more  with 
him,  for  the  fishing;  and  the  next  room  to  you  here,  there  's 
Father  Dyke,  from  Inistioge,  and  he  's  going,  by  the  same 
token,  to  dine  with  the  Lord  to-day." 

"Don't  mention  to  his  Lordship  that  I  am  here,"  said  I, 
hastily.  "I  desire  to  be  quite  unknown  down  here."  The 
waiter  promised  obedience,  without  vouchsafing  any  mis- 
givings as  to  the  possibility  of  his  disclosing  what  he  did 
not  know. 

To  his  question  as  to  my  dinner,  I  carelessly  said,  as  if  I 
were  in  a  West-end  club,  "Never  mind  soup,  — a  little  fish, 
—  a  cutlet  and  a  partridge.  Or  order  it  yourself,  —  I  am 
indifferent."  The  waiter  had  scarcely  left  the  room  when  I 
was  startled  by  the  sound  of  voices  so  close  to  me  as  to  seem 
at  my  side.  They  came  from  a  little  wooden  balcony  to  the 
adjoining  room,  which,  by  its  pretentious  bow-window,  I 
recognized  to  be  the  state  apartment  of  the  inn,  and  now  in 
the  possession  of  Lord  Keldrum  and  his  party.  They  were 
talking  away  in  that  gay,  rattling,  discursive  fashion  very 
young  men  do  amongst  each  other,  and  discussed  fishing- 
flies,  the  neighboring  gentlemen's  seats,  and  the  landlady's 
niece. 

"By  the  way,  Kel,"  cried  one,  "it  was  in  your  visit  to  the 
bar  that  you  met  your  priest,  was  n't  it?  " 

"Yes;  I  offered  him  a  cigar,  and  we  began  to  chat  to- 
gether, and  so  I  asked  him  to  dine  with  us  to-day." 

"And  he  refused?" 

"Yes;  but  he  has  since  changed  his  mind,  and  sent  a 
message  to  say  he  '11  be  with  us  at  eight." 

"I  should  like  to  see  your  father's  face,  Kel,  when  he 
heard  of  your  entertaining  the  Reverend  Father  Dyke  at 
dinner." 

"Well,  I  suppose  he  would  say  it  was  carrying  concilia- 
tion a  little  too  far ;  but  as  the  adage  says,  A  la  guerre  —  " 

2 


18  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

At  this  juncture,  another  burst  in  amongst  them,  calling 
out,  "You  'd  never  guess  who  's  just  arrived  here,  in  strict 
incog.,  and  having  bribed  Mike,  the  waiter,  to  silence. 
Burgoyne ! " 

"Not  Jack  Burgoyne?" 

"Jack  himself.  I  had  the  portrait  so  correctly  drawn  by 
the  waiter,  that  there's  no  mistaking  him;  the  long  hair, 
green  complexion,  sheepish  look,  all  perfect.  He  came  on 
a  hack,  a  little  cream-colored  pad  he  got  at  Dycer's,  and 
fancies  he  *s  quite  unknown." 

"What  can  he  be  up  to  now?  " 

"I  think  I  have  it,"  said  his  Lordship.  "Courtenay  has 
got  two  three-year-olds  down  here  at  his  uncle's,  one  of 
them  under  heavy  engagements  for  the  spring  meetings. 
Master  Jack  has  taken  a  run  down  to  have  a  look  at  them." 

"By  Jove,  Kel,  you're  right!  he's  always  wide  awake, 
and  that  stupid  leaden-eyed  look  he  has,  has  done  him  good 
service  in  the  world." 

"I  say,  old  Oxley,  shall  we  dash  in  and  unearth  him? 
Or  shall  we  let  him  fancy  that  we  know  nothing  of  his 
being  here  at  all  ?  " 

"What  does  Hammond  say?'* 

"I'd  say,  leave  him  to  himself,"  replied  a  deep  voice; 
"you  can't  go  and  see  him  without  asking  him  to  dinner; 
and  he  '11  walk  into  us  after,  do  what  we  will." 

"Not,  surely,  if  we  don't  play,"  said  Oxley. 

"Would  n't  he,  though?  Why,  he  'd  screw  a  bet  out  of  a 
bishop." 

"I 'd  do  with  him  as  Tomkinson  did,"  said  his  Lordship; 
"he  had  him  down  at  his  lodge  in  Scotland,  and  bet  him 
fifty  pounds  that  he  could  n't  pass  a  week  without  a  wager. 
Jack  booked  the  bet  and  won  it,  and  Tomkinson  franked 
the  company." 

"What  an  artful  villain  my  counterpart  must  be!  "  I  said. 
I  stared  in  the  glass  to  see  if  I  could  discover  the  sheepish- 
ness  they  laid  such  stress  on.  I  was  pale,  to  be  sure,  and 
my  hair  a  light  brown,  but  so  was  Shelley's;  indeed,  there 
was  a  wild,  but  soft  expression  in  my  eyes  that  resembled 
his,  and  I  could  recognize  many  things  in  our  natures  that 
seemed  to  correspond.     It  was  the  poetic  dreaminess,  the 


BLONDEL  AND  I  SET  OUT.  19 

lofty  abstractedness  from  all  the  petty  cares  of  every-day 
life  which  vulgar  people  set  down  as  simplicity;  and 
thus,  — 

"  The  soaring  thoughts  that  reached  the  stars. 
Seemed  ignorance  to  them." 

As  I  uttered  the  consolatory  lines,  I  felt  two  hands  firmly 
pressed  over  my  eyes,  while  a  friendly  voice  called  out, 
"Found  out,  old  fellow!  run  fairly  to  earth!"  "Ask  him 
if  he  knows  you,"  whispered  another,  but  in  a  voice  I  could 
catch. 

*'Who  am  I,  Jack?"  cried  the  first  speaker. 

''Situated  as  I  now  am,"  I  replied,  "I  am  unable  to 
pronounce;  but  of  one  thing  I  am  assured,  —  I  am  certain  I 
am  not  called  Jack." 

The  slow  and  measured  intonation  of  my  voice  seemed  to 
electrify  them,  for  my  captor  relinquished  his  hold  and  fell 
back,  while  the  two  others,  after  a  few  seconds  of  blank 
surprise,  burst  into  a  roar  of  laughter;  a  sentiment  which 
the  other  could  not  refrain  from,  while  he  struggled  to 
mutter  some  words  of  apology. 

"Perhaps  I  can  explain  your  mistake,"  I  said  blandly; 
"I  am  supposed  to  be  extremely  like  the  Prince  of  Salms 
Hokinshauven  —  " 

"No,  no! "  burst  in  Lord  Keldrum,  whose  voice  I  recog- 
nized, "we  never  saw  the  Prince.  The  blunder  of  the 
waiter  led  us  into  this  embarrassment;  we  fancied  you 
were  —  " 

"Mr.  Burgoyne,"  I  chimed  in. 

"Exactly, — Jack  Burgoyne;  but  you're  not  a  bit  like 
him." 

"Strange,  then;  but  I'm  constantly  mistaken  for  him; 
and  when  in  London,  I  'm  actually  persecuted  by  people 
calling  out,  '  When  did  you  come  up.  Jack  ?  *  *  Where  do 
you  hang  out?'  *  How  long  do  you  stay?  '  '  Dine  with  me 
to-day  —  to-morrow  —  Saturday  ? '  and  so  on ;  and  although, 
as  I  have  remarked,  these  are  only  so  many  embarrass- 
ments for  me,  they  all  show  how  popular  must  be  my  proto- 
type." I  had  purposely  made  this  speech  of  mine  a  little 
long,   for   I  saw  by  the  disconcerted   looks  of   the  party 


20  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

that  they  did  not  see  how  to  wind  up  "the  situation,"  and, 
like  all  awkward  men,  I  grew  garrulous  where  I  ought  to 
have  been  silent.  While  I  rambled  on.  Lord  Keldrum  ex- 
changed a  word  or  two  with  one  of  his  friends ;  and  as  I 
finished,  he  turned  towards  me,  and,  with  an  air  of  much 
courtesy,  said,  — 

*'We  owe  you  every  apology  for  this  intrusion,  and  hope 
you  will  pardon  it ;  there  is,  however,  but  one  way  in  which 
we  can  certainly  feel  assured  that  we  have  your  forgiveness, 
—  that  is,  by  your  joining  us.  I  see  that  your  dinner  is  in 
preparation,  so  pray  let  me  countermand  it,  and  say  that 
you  are  our  guest." 

"Lord  Keldrum,"  said  one  of  the  party,  presenting  the 
speaker;  "my  name  is  Hammond,  and  this  is  Captain 
0x1  ey,  Coldstream  Guards." 

I  saw  that  this  move  required  an  exchange  of  ratifications, 
and  so  I  bowed,  and  said,  "Algernon  Sydney  Potts." 

"There  are  Staffordshire  Pottses?  " 

"No  relation,"  I  said  stiffly.  It  was  Hammond  who 
made  the  remark,  and  with  a  sneering  manner  that  I  could 
not  abide. 

"Well,  Mr.  Potts,  it  is  agreed,"  said  Lord  Keldrum,  with 
his  peculiar  urbanity,  "we  shall  see  you  at  eight.  No 
dressing.  You  '11  find  us  in  this  fishing-costume  you  see 
now." 

I  trust  my  reader,  who  has  dined  out  any  day  he  pleased 
and  in  any  society  he  has  liked  these  years  past,  will  for- 
give me  if  I  do  not  enter  into  any  detailed  account  of  my 
reasons  for  accepting  this  invitation.  Enough  if  I  freely 
own  that  to  me,  A.  S.  Potts,  such  an  unexpected  honor  was 
about  the  same  surprise  as  if  I  had  been  announced  gov- 
ernor of  a  colony,  or  bishop  in  a  new  settlement. 

"At  eight  sharp,  Mr.  Potts." 

"The  next  door  down  the  passage." 

"Just  as  you  are,  remember!  "  were  the  three  parting 
admonitions  with  which  they  left  me. 


CHAPTER  m. 

TRUTH   NOT  ALWAYS   IN  WINE. 

Who  has  not  experienced  the  charm  of  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  when  totally  removed  from  all  the  accidents  of  his 
station,  the  circumstance  of  his  fortune,  and  his  other 
belongings,  he  has  taken  his  place  amongst  perfect  strangers, 
and  been  estimated  by  the  claims  of  his  own  individuality? 
Is  it  not  this  which  gives  the  almost  ecstasy  of  our  first  tour, 
—  our  first  journey?  There  are  none  to  say,  "  Who  is  this 
Potts  that  gives  himself  these  airs?"  "What  pretension 
has  he  to  say  this,  or  order  that?  "  "  What  would  old  Peter 
say  if  he  saw  his  son  to-day?  "  with  all  the  other  "  What  has 
the  world  come  tos?  "  and  "What  are  we  to  see  nexts?" 
I  say  it  is  with  a  glorious  sense  of  independence  that  one 
sees  himself  emancipated  from  all  these  restraints,  and 
recognizes  his  freedom  to  be  that  which  nature  has  made 
him. 

As  I  sat  on  Lord  Keldrum's  left,  —  Father  Dyke  was  on 
his  right,  —  was  I  in  any  real  quality  other  than  I  ever  am  ? 
Was  my  nature  different,  my  voice,  my  manner,  my  social 
tone,  as  I  received  all  the  bland  attentions  of  my  courteous 
host?  And  yet,  in  my  heart  of  hearts,  I  felt  that  if  it  were 
known  to  that  polite  company  I  was  the  son  of  Peter  Potts, 
'pothecary,  all  my  conversational  courage  would  have  failed 
me.  I  would  not  have  dared  to  assert  fifty  things  I  now 
declared,  nor  vouched  for  a  hundred  that  I  as  assuredly 
guaranteed.  If  I  had  had  to  carry  about  me  traditions  of 
the  shop  in  Mary's  Abbey,  the  laboratory,  and  the  rest  of 
it,  how  could  I  have  had  the  nerve  to  discuss  any  of  the 
topics  on  which  I  now  pronounced  so  authoritatively?  And 
yet,  these  were  all  accidents  of  my  existence,  —  no  more 


22  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

ME  than  was  the  color  of  his  whiskers  mine  who  vaccinated 
me  for  cow-pock.  The  man  Potts  was  himself  through  all ; 
he  was  neither  compounded  of  senna  and  salts,  nor  amal- 
gamated with  sarsaparilla  and  the  acids ;  but  by  the  cruel 
laws  of  a  harsh  conventionality  it  was  decreed  otherwise, 
and  the  trade  of  the  father  descends  to  the  son  in  every 
estimate  of  all  he  does  and  says  and  thinks.  The  converse 
of  the  proposition  1  was  now  to  feel  in  the  success  I  obtained 
in  this  company.  I  was  as  the  Germans  would  say,  ''  Der 
Herr  Potts  selbst,  nicht  nach  seinen  Begebenheiten "  — 
the  man  Potts,  not  the  creature  of  his  belongings. 

The  man  thus  freed  from  his  ''  antecedents,"  and  owning 
no  ''  relatives,"  feels  like  one  to  whom  a  great,  a  most  un- 
limited, credit  has  been  opened,  in  matter  of  opinion.  Not 
reduced  to  fashion  his  sentiments  by  some  supposed  stand- 
ard becoming  his  station,  he  roams  at  will  over  the  broad 
prairie  of  life,  enough  if  he  can  show  cause  why  he  says  this 
or  thinks  that,  without  having  to  defend  himself  for  his 
parentage,  and  the  place  he  was  born  in.  Little  wonder  if, 
with  such  a  sum  to  my  credit,  I  drew  largely  on  it ;  little 
wonder  if  I  were  dogmatical  and  demonstrative ;  little  won- 
der if,  when  my  reason  grew  wearied  with  facts,  I  reposed 
on  my  imagination  in  fiction. 

Be  it  remembered,  however,  that  I  only  became  what  I 
have  set  down  here  after  an  excellent  dinner,  a  considerable 
quantity  of  champagne,  and  no  small  share  of  claret,  strong- 
bodied  enough  to  please  the  priest.  From  the  moment  we 
sat  down  to  table,  I  conceived  for  him  a  sort  of  distrust. 
He  was  painfully  polite  and  civil ;  he  had  a  soft,  slippery, 
Clare  accent ;  but  there  was  a  malicious  twinkle  in  his  eye 
that  showed  he  was  by  nature  satirical.  Perhaps  because  we 
were  more  reading  men  than  the  others  that  it  was  we  soon 
found  ourselves  pitted  against  each  other  in  argument,  and 
this  not  upon  one,  but  upon  every  possible  topic  that  turned 
up.  Hammond,  I  found,  also  stood  by  the  priest;  Oxley 
was  my  backer ;  and  his  Lordship  played  umpire.  Dyke  was 
a  shrewd,  sarcastic  dog  in  his  way,  but  he  had  no  chance 
with  me.  How  mercilessly  I  treated  his  church !  —  he 
pushed  me  to  it,  —  what  an  expose  did  I  make  of  the  Pope 
and  his  government,  with  all  their  extortions  and  cruelties ! 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 

TRUTH  NOT  ALWAYS  IN  WINE.  23 

how  ruthlessly  I  showed  them  up  as  the  sworn  enemies  of 
all  freedom  and  enlightenment !  The  priest  never  got  angry. 
He  was  too  cunning  for  that,  and  he  even  laughed  at  some 
of  my  anecdotes,  of  which  I  related  a  great  many. 

"  Don't  be  so  hard  on  him.  Potts,"  whispered  my  Lord, 
as  the  day  wore  on  ;   "  he 's  not  one  of  us,  you  know !  " 

This  speech  put  me  into  a  flutter  of  delight.  It  was  not 
alone  that  he  called  me  Potts,  but  there  was  also  an  accept- 
ance of  me  as  one  of  his^  own  set.  We  were,  in  fact,  hence- 
forth nous  autres.  Enchanting  recognition,  never  to  be 
forgotten ! 

' '  But  what  would  you  do  with  us  ?  "  said  Dyke,  mildly  re- 
monstrating against  some  severe  measures  we  of  the  landed 
interest  might  be  yet  driven  to  resort  to. 

*'  I  don't  know,  —  that  is  to  say,  —  I  have  not  made  up  my 
mind  whether  it  were  better  to  make  a  clearance  of  you 
altogether,  or  to  bribe  you." 

''Bribe  us  by  all  means,  then!"  said  he,  with  a  most 
serious  earnestness. 

"Ah!  but  could  we  rely  upon  you?"  I  asked. 

''That  would  greatly  depend  upon  the  price." 

"I'll  not  haggle  about  terms,  nor  I'm  sure  would  Kel- 
drum,"  said  I,  nodding  over  to  his  Lordship. 

"  You  are  onl}^  just  to  me,  in  that,"  said  he,  smiling.  ^ 

"  That's  all  fine  talking  for  you  fellows  who  had  the  luck 
to  be  first  on  the  list,  but  what  are  poor  devils  like  Oxley 
and  myself  to  do?"  said  Hammond.  "Taxation  comes 
down  to  second  sons." 

"  And  the  '  Times '  says  that's  all  right,"  added  Oxley. 

"  And  I  say  it's  all  wrong ;  and  I  say  more,"  I  broke  in : 
"  I  say  that  of  all  the  tyrannies  of  Europe,  I  know  of  none 
like  that  newspaper.  Why,  sir,  whose  station,  I  would  ask, 
nowadays,  can  exempt  him  from  its  impertinent  criticisms? 
Can  Keldrum  say  —  can  I  say  —  that  to-morrow  or  next 
day  we  shall  not  be  arraigned  for  this,  that,  or  t'other?  I 
choose,  for  instance,  to  manage  my  estate,  —  the  property 
that  has  been  in  my  family  for  centuries,  —  the  acres  that 
have  descended  to  us  by  grants  as  old  as  Magna  Charta.  I 
desire,  for  reasons  that  seem  sufficient  to  myself,  to  convert 
arable  into  grass  land.     I  say  to  one  of  my  tenant  farmers 


24  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

—  it 's  Hedgeworth  —  no  matter,  I  shall  not  mention  names, 
but  I  say  to  him  —  " 

*'l  know  the  man,"  broke  in  the  priest;  "you  mean 
Hedgeworth  Davis,  of  Mount  Davis." 

"  No,  sir,  I  do  not,"  said  I,  angrily,  for  I  resented  this 
attempt  to  run  me  to  earth. 

''Hedgeworth!  Hedgeworth!  It  ain't  that  fellow  that 
was  in  the  Rifles;  the  2d  battalion,  is  it?"  said  Oxley. 

"  I  repeat,"  said  I,  ''  that  I  will  mention  no  names." 

"  My  mother  had  some  relatives  Hedge  worths,  they  were 
from  Herefordshire.  How  odd.  Potts,  if  we  should  turn 
out  to  be  connections !  You  said  that  these  people  were  re- 
lated to  you." 

''I  hope,"  I  said  angrily,  ''  that  I  am  not  bound  to  give 
the  birth,  parentage,  and  education  of  every  man  whose 
name  I  may  mention  in  conversation.  At  least,  I  would 
protest  that  I  have  not  prepared  myself  for  such  a  demand 
upon  my  memory." 

"  Of  course  not,  Potts.  It  would  be  a  test  no  man  could 
submit  to,"  said  his  Lordship. 

*'  That  Hedgeworth,  who  was  in  the  Rifles,  exceeded  all 
the  fellows  I  ever  met  in  drawing  the  long  bow.  There  was 
no  country  he  had  not  been  in,  no  army  he  had  not  served 
with;  he  was  related  to  every  celebrated  man  in  Europe; 
and,  after  all,  it  turned  out  that  his  father  was  ah  attorney 
at  Market  Harborough,  and  sub-agent  to  one  of  our  fellows 
who  had  some  property  there."  This  was  said  by  Hammond, 
who  directed  the  speech  entirely  to  me. 

''  Confound  the  Hedgeworths,  all  together,"  Oxley  broke 
in.  "They  have  carried  us  miles  away  from  what  we  were 
talking  of." 

This  was  a  sentiment  that  met  my  heartiest  concurrence, 
and  I  nodded  in  friendly  recognition  to  the  speaker,  and 
drank  off  my  glass  to  his  health. 

"  Who  can  give  us  a  song?  I  '11  back  his  reverence  here 
to  be  a  vocalist,"  cried  Hammond.  And  sure  enough.  Dyke 
sang  one  of  the  national  melodies  with  great  feeling  and 
taste.  Oxley  followed  with  something  in  less  perfect  taste, 
and  we  all  grew  very  jolly.  Then  there  came  a  broiled  bone 
and  some  devilled  kidneys,  and  a  warm  brew  which  Ham- 


TRUTH  NOT  ALWAYS  IN  WINE.  25 

mond  .himself  concocted, — a  most  insidious  liquor,  which 
had  a  strong  odor  of  lemons,  and  was  compounded,  at  the 
same  time,  of  little  else  than  rum  and  sugar. 

There  is  an  adage  that  says  "  in  vino  Veritas,"  which  I 
shrewdly  suspect  to  be  a  great  fallacy ;  at  least,  as  regards 
my  own  case,  I  know  it  to  be  totally  inapplicable.  I  am  in 
my  sober  hours  —  and  I  am  proud  to  say  that  the  exceptions 
from  such  are  of  the  rarest  —  one  of  the  most  veracious  of 
mortals ;  indeed,  in  my  frank  sincerity,  I  have  often  given 
offence  to  those  who  like  a  courteous  hypocrisy  better  than 
an  ungraceful  truth.  Whenever  by  any  chance  it  has  been 
my  ill-fortune  to  transgress  these  limits,  there  is  no  bound  to 
my  imagination.  There  is  nothing  too  extravagant  or  too 
vainglorious  for  me  to  say  of  myself.  All  the  strange 
incidents  of  romance  that  I  have  read,  all  the  travellers' 
stories,  newspaper  accidents,  adventures  by  sea  and  land, 
wonderful  coincidences,  unexpected  turns  of  fortune,  I  adapt 
to  myself,  and  coolly  relate  them  as  personal  experiences. 
Listeners  have  afterwards  told  me  that  I  possess  an  amount 
of  consistence,  a  verisimilitude  in  these  narratives  perfectly 
marvellous,  and  only  to  be  accounted  for  by  supposing  that 
I  myself  must,  for  the  time  being,  be  the  dupe  of  my 
own  imagination.  Indeed,  I  am  sure  such  must  be  the  true 
explanation  of  this  curious  fact.  How,  in  any  other  mode, 
explain  the  rash  wagers,  absurd  and  impossible  engagements 
I  have  contracted  in  such  moments,  backing  myself  to  leap 
twenty-three  feet  on  the  level  sward ;  to  dive  in  six  fathoms 
water,  and  fetch  up  Heaven  knows  what  of  shells  and 
marine  curiosities  from  the  bottom ;  to  ride  the  most  unman- 
ageable of  horses ;  and,  single-handed  and  unarmed,  to  fight 
the  fiercest  bulldog  in  England?  Then,  as  to  intellectual 
feats,  what  have  I  not  engaged  to  perform?  Sums  of  mental 
arithmetic;  whole  newspapers  committed  to  memory  after 
one  reading ;  verse  compositions,  on  any  theme,  in  ten  lan- 
guages; and  once  a  written  contract  to  compose  a  whole 
opera,  with  all  the  scores,  within  twenty-four  hours.  To  a 
nature  thus  strangely  constituted,  wine  was  a  perfect  magic 
wand,  transforming  a  poor,  weak,  distrustful  modest  man 
into  a  hero;  and  yet,  even  with  such  temptations,  my  ex- 
cesses were  extremely  rare  and  unfrequent.    Are  there  many, 


2G  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  would  ask,  that  could  resist  the  passport  to  such  a  dream' 
land,  with  only  the  penalty  of  a  headache  the  next  morning? 
Some  one  would,  perhaps,  suggest  that  these  were  enjoy- 
ments to  pay  forfeit  on.  Well,  so  they  were ;  but  I  must 
not  anticipate.     And  now  to  my  tale. 

To  Hammond's  brew  there  succeeded  one  by  Oxley,  made 
after  an  American  receipt,  and  certainly  both  fragrant  and 
insinuating  ;  and  then  came  a  concoction  made  by  the  priest, 
which  he  called  "  Father  Hosey's  pride."  It  was  made  in  a 
bowl,  and  drunk  out  of  lemon-rinds,  ingeniously  fitted  into 
the  wine-glasses.  I  remember  no  other  particulars  about  it, 
though  I  can  call  to  mind  much  of  the  conversation  that  pre- 
ceded it.  How  I  gave  a  long  historical  account  of  my 
family,  that  we  came  originally  from  Corsica,  the  name 
Potts  being  a  corruption  of  Pozzo,  and  that  we  were  of  the 
same  stock  as  the  celebrated  diplomatist  Pozzo  di  Borgo. 
Our  unclaimed  estates  in  the  island  were  of  fabulous  value, 
but  in  asserting  my  right  to  them  I  should  accept  thirteen 
mortal  duels,  the  arrears  of  a  hundred  and  odd  years  un- 
scored  off,  in  anticipation  of  which  I  had  at  one  time  taken 
lessons  from  Angelo,  in  fencing,  which  led  to  the  celebrated 
challenge  they  might  have  read  in  "  Galignani,"  where  I 
offered  to  meet  any  swordsman  in  Europe  for  ten  thousand 
Napoleons,  giving  choice  of  the  weapon  to  my  adversary. 
With  a  tear  to  the  memory  of  the  poor  French  colonel  that 
I  killed  at  Sedan,  I  turned  the  conversation.  Being  in 
France,  I  incidentally  mentioned  some  anecdotes  of  military 
life,  and  how  I  had  invented  the  rifle  called  after  Minie's 
name,  and,  in  a  moment  of  good  nature,  given  that  excellent 
fellow  my  secret. 

"  I  will  say,"  said  I,  "  that  Minie  has  shown  more  grati- 
tude than  some  others  nearer  home,  but  we  '11  talk  of  rifled 
cannon  another  time." 

In  an  episode  about  bear-shooting,  I  mentioned  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia,  poor  dear  Nicholas,  and  told  how  we  had 
once  exchanged  horses,  —  mine  being  more  strong-boned,  and 
a  weight-carrier  ;  his  a  light  Caucasian  mare,  of  purest  breed, 
' '  the  dam  of  that  creature  you  may  see  below  in  the  stable 
now,"  said  I,  carelessly.  ''  '  Come  and  see  me  one  of  these 
days.  Potts,'  said  he,  in  parting ;   '  come  and  pass  a  week 


TRUTH  NOT  ALWAYS  IN  WINE.  21 

with  me  at  Constantinople.'  This  was  the  first  intimation  he 
had  ever  given  of  his  project  against  Turkey ;  and  when  I 
told  it  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  his  remark  was  a  muttered 
'  Strange  fellow,  Potts,  —  knows  everything !  *  though  he 
made  no  reply  to  me  at  the  time." 

It  was  somewhere  about  this  period  that  the  priest  began 
with  what  struck  me  as  an  attempt  to  outdo  me  as  a  story- 
teller, an  effort  I  should  have  treated  with  the  most  con- 
temptuous indifference  but  for  the  amount  of  attention 
bestowed  on  him  by  the  others.  Nor  was  this  all,  but  actu- 
ally I  perceived  that  a  kind  of  rivalry  was  attempted  to  be 
established,  so  that  we  were  pitted  directly  against  each 
other.  Amongst  the  other  self-delusions  of  such  moments 
was  the  profound  conviction  I  entertained  that  I  was  master 
of  all  games  of  skill  and  address,  superior  to  Major  A.  at 
whist,  and  able  to  give  Staunton  a  pawn  and  the  move  at 
chess.  The  priest  was  just  as  vainglorious.  '*  He  'd  like  to 
see  the  man  who  'd  play  him  a  game  of  '  spoiled  five '  "  — 
whatever  that  was —  "or  drafts;  ay,  or,  though  it  was  not 
his  pride,  a  bit  of  backgammon." 

''  Done,  for  fifty  pounds;  double  on  the  gammon!  "  cried 
I. 

*' Fifty  fiddlesticks!  "  cried  he;  "where  would  you  or  I 
find  as  many  shillings  ?  " 

"What  do  you  mean,  sir?"  said  I,  angrily.  "Am  I  to 
suppose  that  you  doubt  my  competence  to  risk  such  a  com- 
temptible  sum,  or  is  it  to  your  own  inability  alone  you  would 
testify?" 

A  very  acrimonious  dispute  followed,  of  which  I  have  no 
clear  recollection.  I  only  remember  how  Hammond  was  out- 
and  out  for  the  priest,  and  Oxley  too  tipsy  to  take  my  part 
with  any  efficiency.  At  last  —  Row  arranged  I  can't  say  — 
peace  was  restored,  and  the  next  thing  I  can  recall  was 
listeifing  to  Father  Dyke  giving  a  long,  and  of  course  a  most 
fabulous,  history  of  a  ring  that  he  wore  on  his  second 
finger.  It  was  given  by  the  Pretender,  he  said,  to  his  uncle, 
the  celebrated  Carmelite  monk,  Lawrence  O' Kelly,  who  for 
years  had  followed  the  young  prince's  fortunes.  It  was  an 
onyx,  with  the  letters  C.  E.  S.  engraved  on  it.  Keldrum 
took  an  immense  fancy  to  it ;  he  protested  that  everything 


28  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

that  attached  to  that  unhappy  family  possessed  in  his  eyes 
an  uncommon  interest.  /'If  you  have  a  fancy  to  take  up 
Potts's  wager,"  said  he,  laughingly,  ''I'll  give  you  fifty 
pounds  for  your  signet  ring." 

.  The  priest  demurred ;  Hammond  interposed ;  then  there 
was  more  discussion,  now  warm,  now  jocose.  Oxley  tried 
to  suggest  something,  which  we  all  laughed  at.  Keldrum 
placed  the  backgammon  board  meanwhile ;  but  I  can  give 
no  clear  account  of  what  ensued,  though  I  remember  that 
the  terms  of  our  wager  were  committed  to  writing  by  Ham- 
mond, and  signed  by  Father  D.  and  myself,  and  in  the  con- 
ditions there  figured  a  certain  ring,  guaranteed  to  have 
belonged  to  and  been  worn  by  his  Royal  Highness  Charles 
Edward,  and  a  cream-colored  horse,  equally  guaranteed  as 
the  produce  of  a  Caucasian  mare  presented  by  the  late 
Emperor  Nicholas  to  the  present  owner.  The  document 
was  witnessed  by  all  three,  Oxley 's  name  written  in  two 
letters,  and  a  flourish. 

After  that,  I  played,  and  lost ! 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PLEASANT  REFLECTIONS    ON   AWAKING. 

I  CAN  recall  to  this  very  hour  the  sensations  of  headache  and 
misery  with  which  I  awoke  the  morning  after  this  debauch. 
Racking  pain  it  was,  with  a  sort  of  tremulous  beating  all 
through  the  brain,  as  though  a  small  engine  had  been  set  to 
work  there,  and  that  piston  and  boiler  and  connecting-rod 
were  all  banging,  fizzing,  and  vibrating  amid  my  fevered 
senses.  I  was,  besides,  much  puzzled  to  know  where  I  was, 
and  how  I  had  come  there.  Controversial  divinity,  geneal- 
ogy, horse-racing,  the  peerage,  and  "  double  sixes  "  were  danc- 
ing a  wild  cotillon  through  my  brain ;  and  although  a  waiter 
more  than  once  cautiously  obtruded  his  head  into  the  room, 
to  see  if  I  were  asleep,  and  as  guardedly  withdrew  it  again, 
I  never  had  energy  to  speak  to  him,  but  lay  passive  and  still, 
waiting  till  my  mind  might  clear,  and  the  cloud-fog  that  ob- 
scured my  faculties  might  be  wafted  away. 

At  last  —  it  was  towards  evening  —  the  man,  possibly 
becoming  alarmed  at  my  protracted  lethargy,  moved  some- 
what briskly  through  the  room,  and  with  that  amount  of 
noise  that  showed  he  meant  to  arouse  me,  disturbed  chairs 
^nd  fire-irons  indiscriminately. 

"  Is  it  late  or  early?  "  asked  I,  faintly. 

'"Tis  near  five,  sir,  and  a  beautiful  evening,"  said  he, 
drawing  nigh,  with  the  air  of  one  disposed  for  colloquy. 

I  did  n't  exactly  like  to  ask  where  I  was,  and  tried  to  ascer- 
tain the  fact  by  a  little  circumlocution.  "  I  suppose,"  said  I, 
yawning,  ''  for  all  that  is  to  be  done  in  a  place  like  this,  when 
up,  one  might  just  as  well  stay  abed,  eh?" 

"'Tis  the  snuggest  place,  anyhow,"  said  he,  with  that 
peculiar  disposition  to  agree  with  you  so  characteristic  in 
an  Irish  waiter. 


30  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

''  No  society?  "  sighed  I. 

**No,  indeed,  sir." 

"  No  theatre?" 

"  Devil  a  one,  sir." 

"No  sport?" 

"  Yesterday  was  the  last  of  the  season,  sir;  and  signs  on 
it,  his  Lordship  and  the  other  gentleman  was  off  immediately 
after  breakfast." 

'^  You  mean  Lord  —  Lord  —  "A  mist  was  clearing  slowly 
away,  but  I  could  not  yet  see  clearly. 

**Lord  Keldrum,  sir;  a  real  gentleman  every  inch  of 
him." 

"Oh!  yes,  to  be  sure,  —  a  very  old  friend  of  mine," 
muttered  I.     "And  so  he's  gone,  is  he?" 

"Yes,  sir;  and  the  last  word  he  said  was  about  your 
honor." 

"  About  me,  —  what  was  it? " 

"  Well,  indeed,  sir,"  replied  the  waiter,  with  a  hesitating 
and  confused  manner,  "  I  did  n't  rightly  understand  it ;  but 
as  well  as  I  could  catch  the  words,  it  was  something  about 
hoping  your  honor  had  more  of  that  wonderful  breed  of  horses 
the  Emperor  of  Roosia  gave  you." 

"Oh,  yes!  I  understand,"  said  I,  stopping  him  abruptly. 
"  By  the  way,  how  is  Blondel  —  that  is,  my  horse  —  this 
morning  ?  " 

"  Well,  he  looked  fresh  and  hearty,  when  he  went  off  this 
morning  at  daybreak  —  " 

"What  do  you  mean?  "cried  I,  jumping  up  in  my  bed. 
"Went  off?  where  to?" 

* '  With  Father  Dyke  on  his  back ;  and  a  neater  hand  he 
could  n't  wish  over  him.  'Tim,'  says  he,  to  the  ostler,  as 
he  mounted,  *  there  's  a  five-shilling  piece  for  you,  for  han- 
sel, for  I  won  this  baste  last  night,  and  you  must  drink 
my  health  and  wish  me  luck  with  him.'  " 

I  heard  no  more,  but,  sinking  back  into  the  bed,  I  covered 
my  face  with  my  hands,  overcome  with  shame  and  misery. 
All  the  mists  that  had  blurred  my  faculties  had  now  been 
swept  clean  away,  and  the  whole  history  of  the  previous 
evening  was  revealed  before  me.  My  stupid  folly,  my  ab- 
surd boastf ulness,  my  egregious  story-telling,  —  not  to  call 


PLEASANT  REFLECTIONS  ON  AWAKING.  31 

it  worse,  —  were  all  there  ;  but,  shall  I  acknowledge  it?  what 
pained  me  not  less  poignantly  was  the  fact  that  I  ventured 
to  stake  the  horse  I  had  merely  hired,  and  actually  lost  him 
at  the  play- table. 

As  soon  as  I  rallied  from  this  state  of  self-accusation,  I 
set  to  work  to  think  how  I  should  manage  to  repossess  my- 
self of  my  beast,  my  loss  of  which  might  be  converted  into 
a  felony.  To  follow  the  priest  and  ransom  Blondel  was  my 
first  care.  Father  Dyke  would  most  probably  not  exact  an 
unreasonable  price ;  he,  of  course,  never  believed  one  word 
of  my  nonsensical  narrative  about  Schamyl  and  the  Cauca- 
sus, and  he  'd  not  revenge  upon  Potts  sober  the  follies  of 
Potts  tipsy.  It  is  true  my  purse  was  a  very  slender  one, 
but  Blondel,  to  any  one  unacquainted  with  his  pedigree, 
could  not  be  a  costly  animal ;  fifteen  pounds  —  twenty, 
certainly  —  ought  to  buy  what  the  priest  would  call  "every 
hair  on  his  tail." 

It  was  now  too  late  in  the  evening  to  proceed  to  execute 
the  measures  I  had  resolved  on,  and  so  I  determined  to  lie 
still  and  ponder  over  them.  Dismissing  the  waiter,  with  an 
order  to  bring  me  a  cup  of  tea  about  eight  o'clock,  I  resumed 
my  cogitations.  They  were  not  pleasant  ones :  Potts  a  by- 
word for  the  most  outrageous  and  incoherent  balderdash 
and  untruth;  Potts  in  the  *'Hue  and  Cry;"  Potts  in  the 
dock;  Potts  in  the  pillory;  Potts  paragraphed  in  "Punch;" 
portrait  of  Potts,  price  one  penny !  —  these  were  only  a  few 
of  the  forms  in  which  the  descendant  of  the  famous  Corsican 
family  of  Pozzo  di  Borgo  now  presented  himself  to  my 
imagination. 

The  courts  and  quadrangles  of  Old  Trinity  ringing  with 
laughter,  the  coarse  exaggerations  of  tasteless  scoffers,  the 
jokes  and  sneers  of  stupidity,  malice,  and  all  uncharitable- 
ndss,  rang  in  my  ears  as  if  I  heard  them.  All  possible  and 
impossible  versions  of  the  incident  passed  in  review  before 
me:  my  father,  driven  distracted  by  impertinent  inquiries, 
cutting  me  off  with  a  shilling,  and  then  dying  of  mortifica- 
tion and  chagrin;  rewards  offered  for  my  apprehension; 
descriptions,  not  in  any  way  flatteries,  of  my  personal  ap- 
pearance; paragraphs  of  local  papers  hinting  that  the 
notorious  Potts  was  supposed  to  have  been   seen   In  our 


32  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

neighborhood  yesterday,  with  sly  suggestions  about  look- 
ing after  stable-doors,  &c.  I  could  bear  it  ijo  longer.  I 
jumped  up,  and  rang  the  bell  violently. 

"You  know  this  Father  Dyke,  waiter?  In  what  part  of 
the  country  does  he  live  ? " 

"He 's  parish  priest  of  Inistioge,"  said  he;  "the  snuggest 
place  in  the  whole  county." 

"  How  far  from  this  may  it  be  ?  " 

"It's  a  matter  of  five-and-forty  miles;  and  by  the  same 
token,  he  said  he  'd  not  draw  bridle  till  he  got  home  to-night, 
for  there  was  a  fair  at  Grague  to-morrow,  and  if  he  was  n't 
pleased  with  the  baste  he  'd  sell  him  there." 

I  groaned  deeply ;  for  here  was  a  new  complication,  entirely 
unlooked  for.  "You  can't  possibly  mean,"  gasped  I  out, 
"that  a  respectable  clergyman  would  expose  for  sale  a  horse 
lent  to  him  casually  by  a  friend  ?  "  for  the  thought  struck 
me  that  this  protest  of  mine  should  be  thus  early  on  record. 

The  waiter  scratched  his  head  and  looked  confused. 
Whether  another  version  of  the  event  possessed  him,  or  that 
my  question  staggered  his  convictions,  I  am  unable  to  say ; 
but  he  made  no  reply.  "It  is  true,"  continued  I,  in  the 
same  strain,  "that  I  met  his  reverence  last  night  for  the  first 
time.  My  friend  Lord  Keldrum  made  us  acquainted;  but 
seeing  him  received  at  my  noble  friend's  board,  I  naturally 
felt,  and  said  to  myself,  '  The  man  Keldrum  admits  to  his 
table  is  the  equal  of  any  one.'  Could  anything  be  more 
reasonable  than  that?  " 

"No,  indeed,  sir;  nothing,"  said  the  waiter,  obsequiously. 

"Well,  then,"  resumed  I,  "some  day  or  other  it  may 
chance  that  you  will  be  called  on  to  remember  and  recall 
this  conversation  between  us ;  if  so,  it  will  be  important  that 
you  should  have  a  clear  and  distinct  memory  of  the  fact 
that  when  I  awoke  in  the  morning,  and  asked  for  my  horSe, 
the  answer  you  made  me  was  —  What  was  the  answer  you 
made  me?" 

"The  answer  I  med  was  this,"  said  the  fellow,  sturdily, 
and  with  an  effrontery  I  can  never  forget,  —  "the  answer  I 
med  was,  that  the  man  that  won  him  took  him  away." 

"You  're  an  insolent  scoundrel,"  cried  I,  boiling  over 
with  passion,  "  and  if  you  don't  ask  pardon  for  this  outrage 


PLEASANT  REFLECTIONS  ON  AWAKING.  S3 

on  your  knees,  I  '11  include  you  in  the  indictment  for 
conspiracy." 

So  far  from  proceeding  to  the  penitential  act  I  proposed, 
the  fellow  grinned  from  ear  to  ear,  and  left  the  room.  It 
was  a  long  time  before  I  could  recover  my  wonted  calm  and 
'^omposure.  That  this  rascal's  evidence  would  be  fatal  to 
me  if  the  question  ever  came  to  trial,  was  as  clear  as  noon- 
day ;  not  less  clear  was  it  that  he  knew  this  himself. 

"I  must  go  back  at  once  to  town,"  thought  I.  "I  will 
surrender  myself  to  the  law.  If  a  compromise  be  impossible, 
I  will  perish  at  the  stake.'* 

I  forgot  there  was  no  stake ;  but  there  was  wool-carding, 
and  oakum-picking,  and  wheel-treading,  and  oyster-shell 
pounding,  and  other  small  plays  of  this  nature,  infinitely 
more  degrading  to  humanity  than  all  the  cruelties  of  our 
barbarous  ancestors. 

Now,  in  no  record  of  lives  of  adventure  had  I  met  any 
account  of  such  trials  as  these.  The  Silvio  Pellicos  of 
Pentonville  are  yet  unwritten  martyrs.  Prison  discipline 
would  vulgarize  the  grandest  epic  that  ever  was  conceived 
"Anything  rather  than  this,"  said  I,  aloud.  ''Proscribed, 
outlawed,  hunted  down,  but  never,  gray-coated  and  hair- 
'Clipped,  shall  a  Potts  be  sentenced  to  the  '  crank,'  or  black- 
holed  as  refractory!  —  Bring  me  my  bill,"  cried  I,  in  a  voice 
of  indignant  anger.  "I  will  go  forth  into  the  world  of 
darkness  and  tempest ;  I  will  meet  the  storm  and  the  hurri- 
cane; better  all  the  conflict  of  the  elements  than  man's  — 
than  man's  —  "I  was  n't  exactly  sure  what;  but  there  was 
no  need  of  the  word,  for  a  gust  of  wind  had  just  flattened 
my  umbrella  in  my  face  as  I  issued  forth,  and  left  me 
breathless,  as  the  door  closed  behind  me. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   ROSARY  AT   INISTIOGE. 

As  I  walked  onward  against  the  swooping  wind  and  the 
plashing  rain,  I  felt  a  sort  of  heroic  ardor  in  the  notion  of 
breasting  the  adverse  waves  of  life  so  boldly.  It  is  not 
every  fellow  could  do  this,  —  throw  his  knapsack  on  his 
shoulder,  seize  his  stick,  and  set  out  in  storm  and  black- 
ness. No,  Potts,  my  man ;  for  downright  inflexibility  of 
purpose,  for  bold  and  resolute  action,  you  need  yield  to 
none!  It  was,  indeed,  an  awful  night;  the  thunder  rolled 
and  crashed  with  scarce  an  interval  of  cessation;  forked 
lightning  tore  across  the  sky  in  every  direction ;  while  the 
wind  swept  through  the  deep  glen,  smashing  branches  and 
uplifting  large  trees  like  mere  shrubs.  I  was  soon  com- 
pletely drenched,  and  my  soaked  clothes  hung  around  with 
the  weight  of  lead ;  my  spirits,  however,  sustained  me,  and 
I  toiled  along,  occasionally  in  a  sort  of  wild  bravado,  giving 
a  cheer  as  the  thunder  rolled  close  above  my  head,  and 
trying  to  sing,  as  though  my  heart  were  as  gay  and  my 
spirits  as  light  as  in  an  hour  of  happiest  abandonment. 

Jean  Paul  has  somewhere  the  theory  that  our  Good 
Genius  is  attached  to  us  from  our  birth  by  a  film  fine  as 
gossamer,  and  which  few  of  us  escape  rupturing  in  the  first 
years  of  youth,  thus  throwing  ourselves  at  once  without  chart 
or  pilot  upon  the  broad  ocean  of  life.  He,  however,  more 
happily  constituted,  who  feels  the  guidance  of  his  guardian 
spirit,  recognizes  the  benefits  of  its  care,  and  the  admoni- 
tions of  its  wisdom, —  he  is  destined  to  great  things.  Such 
men  discover  new  worlds  beyond  the  seas,  carry  conquest 
over  millions,  found  dynasties,  and  build  up  empires ;  they 
whom  the  world  regard  as  demigods  having  simply  the  wis- 
dom of  being  led  by  fortune,  and  not  severing  the  slender 


THE  ROSARY  AT  INISTIOGE.  35 

thread  that  unites  them  to  their  destiny.  Was  I,  Potts,  in 
this  glorious  category  ?  Had  the  lesson  of  the  great  moral- 
ist been  such  a  warning  to  me  that  I  had  preserved  the  filmy 
link  unbroken?  I  really  began  to  think  so;  a  certain  im- 
pulse, a  whispering  voice  within,  that  said,  "Go  on!  "  On, 
ever  onward !  seemed  to  be  the  accents  of  that  Fate  which 
had  great  things  in  store  for  me,  and  would  eventually  make 
me  illustrious. 

No  illusions  of  your  own.  Potts,  no  phantasmagoria  of 
your  own  poor  heated  fancy,  must  wile  you  away  from  the 
great  and  noble  part  destined  for  you.  No  weakness,  no 
faint-hearted ness,  no  shrinking  from  toil,  nor  even  peril. 
Work  hard  to  know  thoroughly  for  what  Fate  intends  you ; 
read  your  credentials  well,  and  then  go  to  your  post  un- 
flinchingly. Revolving  this  theory  of  mine,  I  walked  ever 
on.  It  opened  a  wide  field,  and  my  imagination  disported 
in  it,  as  might  a  wild  mustang  over  some  vast  prairie.  The 
more  I  thought  over  it,  the  more  did  it  seem  to  me  the  real 
embodiment  of  that  superstition  which  extends  to  every  land 
and  every  family  of  men.  We  are  Lucky  when,  submitting 
to  our  Good  Genius,  we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  led  along 
unhesitatingly;  we  are  Unlucky  when,  breaking  our  frail 
bonds,  we  encounter  life  unguided  and  unaided. 

What  a  docile,  obedient,  and  believing  pupil  did  I  pledge 
myself  to  be !  Fate  should  see  that  she  had  no  refractory 
nor  rebellious  spirit  in  me,  no  self-indulgent  voluptuary, 
seeking  only  the  sunny  side  of  existence,  but  a  nature  ready 
to  confront  the  rugged  conflict  of  life,  and  to  meet  its  hard- 
ships, if  such  were  my  allotted  path. 

I  applied  the  circumstances  in  which  I  then  found  myself 
to  my  theory,  and  met  no  diflSculty  in  the  adaptation. 
Blondel  was  to  perform  a  great  part  in  my  future.  Blondel 
was  a  symbol  selected  by  fate  to  indicate  a  certain  direction. 
Blondel  was  a  lamp  by  which  I  could  find  my  way  in  the  dark 
paths  of  the  world.  With  Blondel,  my  Good  Genius  would 
walk  beside  me,  or  occasionally  get  up  on  the  crupper,  but 
never  leave  me  or  desert  me.  In  the  high  excitement  of  my 
mind,  I  felt  no  sense  of  bodily  fatigue,  but  walked  on, 
drenched  to  the  skin,  alternately  shivering  with  cold  or  burn- 
ing with  all  the  intensity  of  fever.     In  this  state  was  it  that 


36  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

I  entered  the  little  inn  of  Ovoco  soon  after  daybreak,  and 
stood  dripping  in  the  bar,  a  sad  spectacle  of  exhaustion  and 
excitement.  My  first  question  was,  "Has  Blondel  been 
here  ?  "  and  before  they  could  reply,  I  went  on  with  all  the 
rapidity  of  delirium  to  assure  them  that  deception  of  me 
would  be  fruitless ;  that  Fate  and  I  understood  each  other 
thoroughly,  travelled  together  on  the  best  of  terms,  never 
disagreed  about  anything,  but,  by  a  mutual  system  of  give 
and  take,  hit  it  off  like  brothers.  I  talked  for  an  hour  in 
this  strain ;  and  then  my  poor  faculties,  long  struggling  and 
sore  pushed,  gave  way  completely,  and  I  fell  into  brain 
fever. 

I  chanced  upon  kind  and  good-hearted  folk,  who  nursed 
me  with  care  and  watched  me  with  interest ;  but  my  illness 
was  a  severe  one,  and  it  was  only  in  the  sixth  week  that  I 
could  be  about  again,  a  poor,  weak,  emaciated  creature, 
with  failing  limbs  and  shattered  nerves.  There  is  an  inde- 
scribable sense  of  weariness  in  the  mind  after  fever,  just  as 
if  the  brain  had  been  enormously  over-taxed  and  exerted, 
and  that  in  the  pursuit  of  all  the  wild  and  fleeting  fancies  of 
delirium  it  had  travelled  over  miles  and  miles  of  space.  To 
the  depressing  influence  of  this  sensation  is  added  the  diffi- 
culty of  disentangling  the  capricious  illusions  of  the  sick-bed 
from  the  actual  facts  of  life;  and  in  this  maze  of  con- 
fusion my  first  days  of  convalescence  were  passed.  Blondel 
was  my  great  puzzle.  Was  he  a  reality,  or  a  mere  creature 
of  imagination?  Had  I  really  ridden  him  as  a  horse,  or 
only  as  an  idea?  Was  he  a  quadruped  with  mane  and  tail, 
or  an  allegory  invented  to  typify  destiny?  I  cannot  say 
what  hours  of  painful  brain  labor  this  inquiry  cost  me,  and 
what  intense  research  into  myself.  Strange  enough,  too, 
though  I  came  out  of  the  investigation  convinced  of  his 
existence,  I  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  he  was  a  "horse 
and  something  more."  Not  that  I  am  able  to  explain  my- 
self more  fully  on  that  head,  though,  if  I  were  writing  this 
portion  of  my  memoirs  in  German,  I  suspect  I  could  convey 
enough  of  my  meaning  to  give  a  bad  headache  to  any  one 
indulgent  enough  to  follow  me. 

I  set  out  once  more  upon  my  pilgrimage  on  a  fine  day  of 
June,  my  steps  directed  to  the  village  of  Inistioge,  where 


THE  ROSARY  AT  INISTIOGE.  87 

Father  Dyke  resided.  I  was  too  weak  for  much  exertion, 
and  it  was  only  after  five  days  of  the  road  I  reached  at 
nightfall  the  little  glen  in  which  the  village  stood.  The 
moon  was  up,  streaking  the  wide  market-places  with  long 
lines  of  yellow  light  between  the  rows  of  tall  elm-trees,  and 
tipping  with  silvery  sheen  the  bright  eddies  of  the  beautiful 
river  that  rolled  beside  it.  Over  the  granite  cliffs  that  mar- 
gined the  stream,  laurel,  and  arbutus,  and  wild  holly  clus- 
tered in  wild  luxuriance,  backed  higher  up  again,  by  tall 
pine-trees,  whose  leafy  summits  stood  out  against  the  sky; 
and  lastly,  deep  within  a  waving  meadow,  stood  an  old 
ruined  abbey,  whose  traceried  window  was  now  softly  touched 
by  the  moonlight.  All  was  still  and  silent,  except  the 
rush  of  the  rapid  river,  as  I  sat  down  upon  a  stone  bench  to 
enjoy  the  scene  and  luxuriate  in  its  tranquil  serenity.  I  had 
not  believed  Ireland  contained  such  a  spot,  for  there  was  all 
the  trim  neatness  and  careful  propriety  of  an  English 
village,  with  that  luxuriance  of  verdure  and  wild  beauty  so 
eminently  Irish.  How  was  it  that  I  had  never  heard  of  it 
before?  Were  others  aware  of  it,  or  was  the  discovery 
strictly  my  own?  Or  can  it  possibly  be  that  all  this  pictur- 
esque loveliness  is  but  the  effect  of  a  mellow  moon?  While 
I  thus  questioned  myself,  I  heard  the  sound  of  a  quick  foot- 
step rapidly  approaching,  and  soon  afterwards  the  pleasant 
tone  of  a  rich  voice  humming  an  opera  air.  I  arose,  and 
saw  a  tall,  athletic-looking  figure,  with  rod  and  fishing- 
basket,  approaching  me. 

"May  I  ask  you,  sir,"  said  I,  addressing  him,  "if  this 
village  contains  an  inn  ?  " 

"There  is,  or  rather  there  was,  a  sort  of  inn  here,"  said 
he,  removing  his  cigar  as  he  spoke;  "but  the  place  is  so 
little  visited  that  I  fancy  the  landlord  found  it  would  not 
answer,  and  so  it  is  closed  at  this  moment." 

"But  do  visitors  —  tourists  —  never  pass  this  way?" 

"Yes,  and  a  few  salmon-fishers,  like  myself,  come  occa- 
sionally in  the  season;  but  then  we  dispose  ourselves  in 
little  lodgings,  here  and  there,  some  of  us  with  the  farmers, 
one  or  two  of  us  with  the  priest." 

"Father  Dyke? "  broke  I  in. 

"  Yes ;  you  know  him,  perhaps  ?  " 


38  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

*'I  have  heard  of  him,  and  met  him,  indeed,'*  added  I, 
after  a  pause.     ''Where  may  his  house  be?  " 

''The  prettiest  spot  in  the  whole  glen.  If  you  'd  like  to 
see  it  in  this  picturesque  moonlight,  come  along  with  me." 

I  accepted  the  invitation  at  once,  and  we  walked  on 
together.  The  easy,  half-careless  tone  of  the  stranger,  the 
loose,  lounging  stride  of  his  walk,  and  a  certain  something 
in  his  mellow  voice,  seemed  to  indicate  one  of  those  natures 
which,  so  to  say,  take  the  world  well,  —  temperaments  that 
reveal  themselves  almost  immediately.  He  talked  away 
about  fishing  as  he  went,  and  appeared  to  take  a  deep  inter- 
est in  the  sport,  not  heeding  much  the  ignorance  I  betrayed 
on  the  subject,  nor  my  ignoble  confession  that  I  had  never 
adventured  upon  anything  higher  than  a  worm  and  a  quill. 

"I'm  sure,"  said  he,  laughingly,  "Tom  Dyke  never  en- 
couraged you  in  such  sporting-tackle,  glorious  fly-fisher  as 
he  is." 

"You  forget,  perhaps,"  replied  I,  "that  I  scarcely  have 
any  acquaintance  with  him.  We  met  once  only  at  a  dinner- 
party." 

"He's  a  pleasant  fellow,"  resumed  he;  "devilish  wide- 
awake, one  must  say ;  up  to  most  things  in  this  same  world 
of  ours." 

"That  much  my  own  brief  experience  of  him  can  confirm," 
said  I,  dryly,  for  the  remark  rather  jarred  upon  my  feelings. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  as  though  following  out  his  own  train  of 
thought.  "  Old  Tom  is  not  a  bird  to  be  snared  with  coarse 
lines.  The  man  must  be  an  early  riser  that  catches  him 
napping." 

I  cannot  describe  how  this  irritated  me.  It  sounded  like 
so  much  direct  sarcasm  upon  my  weakness  and  want  of 
acuteness. 

" There 's  the  '  Rosary; '  that 's  his  cottage,"  said  he,  tak- 
ing my  arm,  while  he  pointed  upward  to  a  little  jutting 
promontory  of  rock  over  the  river,  surmounted  by  a  little 
thatched  cottage  almost  embowered  in  roses  and  honey- 
suckles. So  completely  did  it  occupy  the  narrow  limits  of 
ground,  that  the  windows  projected  actually  over  the  stream, 
and  the  creeping  plants  that  twined  through  the  little  bal- 
conies hung  in  tangled  masses  over  the  water.     "Search 


THE   ROSARY  AT  INISTIOGE.  39 

where  you  will  through  the  Scottish  and  Cumberland  scen- 
ery, I  defy  you  to  match  that,"  said  my  companion;  "not 
to  say  that  you  can  hook  a  four-pound  fish  from  that  little 
balcony  on  any  summer  evening  while  you  smoke  your 
cigar." 

"It  is  a  lovely  spot,  indeed,"  said  I,  inhaling  with  ecstasy 
the  delicious  perfume  which  in  the  calm  night  air  seemed 
to  linger  in  the  atmosphere. 

"He  tells  me,"  continued  my  companion, —  "and  I  take  his 
word  for  it,  for  I  am  no  florist,  — that  there  are  seventy  varie- 
ties of  the  rose  on  and  around  that  cottage.  I  can  answer 
for  it  that  you  can't  open  a  window  without  a  great  mass  of 
flowers  coming  in  showers  over  you.  I  told  him,  frankly, 
that  if  I  were  his  tenant  for  longer  than  the  fishing-season, 
I  'd  clear  half  of  them  away." 

"You  live  there,  then?"  asked  I,  timidly. 

"Yes,  I  rent  the  cottage,  all  but  two  rooms,  which  he 
wished  to  keep  for  himself,  but  which  he  now  writes  me 
word  may  be  let,  for  this  month  and  the  next,  if  a  tenant 
offer.     Would  you  like  them?"  asked  he,  abruptly. 

"Of  all  things  —  that  is  —  I  think  so  —  I  should  like  to 
see  them  first! "  muttered  I,  half  startled  by  the  suddenness 
of  the  question. 

"Nothing  easier,"  said  he,  opening  a  little  wicket  as  he 
spoke,  and  beginning  to  ascend  a  flight  of  narrow  steps  cut 
in  the  solid  rock.  "This  is  a  path  of  my  designing,"  con- 
tinued he;  "the  regular  approach  is  on  the  other  side;  but 
this  saves  fully  half  a  mile  of  road,  though  it  be  a  little 
steep." 

As  I  followed  him  up  the  ascent,  I  proposed  to  myself  a 
variety  of  questions,  such  as,  where  and  how  I  was  to  pro- 
cure accommodation  for  the  night,  and  in  what  manner  to 
obtain  something  to  eat,  of  which  I  stood  much  in  need? 
and  I  had  gained  a  little  flower-garden  at  the  rear  of  the 
cottage  before  I  had  resolved  any  of  these  difficult  points. 

"Here  we  are,"  said  he,  drawing  a  long  breath.  "You 
can't  see  much  of  the  view  at  this  hour;  but  to-morrow, 
when  you  stand  on  this  spot,  and  look  down  that  reach  of 
the  river,  with  Mont  Alto  in  the  background,  you  '11  tell  me 
if  you  know  anything  finer!  " 


40  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"Is  that  Edward?"  cried  a  soft  voice;  and  at  the  same 
instant  a  young  girl  came  hastily  out  of  the  cottage,  and, 
throwing  her  arms  around  my  companion,  exclaimed,  ''How 
you  have  alarmed  me !  What  could  possibly  have  kept  you 
out  so  late  ?  " 

"A  broad-shouldered  fish,  a  fellow  weighing  twelve  pounds 
at  the  very  least,  and  who,  after  nigh  three  hours'  playing^ 
got  among  the  rocks  and  smashed  my  tackle." 

''And  you  lost  him  ?  " 

"That  did  I,  and  some  twenty  yards  of  gut,  and  the  top 
splice  of  my  best  rod,  and  my  temper,  besides.  But  I  *m 
forgetting ;  Mary,  here  is  a  gentleman  who  will,  I  hope,  not 
refuse  to  join  us  at  supper.  — My  sister." 

By  the  manner  of  presentation,  it  was  clear  that  he  ex- 
pected" to  hear  my  name,  and  so  I  interposed,  "  Mr.  Potts, 
—  Algernon  Sydney  Potts." 

The  young  lady  courtesied  slightly,  muttered  something 
like  a  repetition  of  the  invitation,  and  led  the  way  into  the 
cottage. 

My  astonishment  was  great  at  the  "interior"  now  before 
me ;  for  though  all  the  arrangements  bespoke  habits  of  com- 
fort and  even  luxury,  there  was  a  studious  observance  of 
cottage  style  in  everything;  the  bookshelves,  the  tables, 
the  very  pianoforte,  being  all  made  of  white  unvarnished 
wood.  And  I  now  perceived  that  the  young  lady  herself, 
with  a  charming  coquetry,  had  assumed  something  of  the 
costume  of  the  Oberland,  and  wore  her  bodice  laced  in  front, 
and  covered  with  silver  embroidery  both  tasteful  and 
becoming. 

"My  name  is  Crofton,"  said  my  host,  as  he  disengaged 
himself  of  his  basket  and  tackle;  "we  are  almost  as  much 
strangers  here  as  yourself.  I  came  here  for  the  fishing,  and 
mean  to  take  myself  off  when  it's  over." 

"I  hope  not,  Edward,"  broke  in  the  girl,  who  was  now, 
with  the  assistance  of  a  servant-woman,  preparing  the  table 
for  supper;  "I  hope  you  '11  stay  till  we  see  the  autumn  tints 
on  those  trees." 

"My  sister  is  just  as  great  an  enthusiast  about  sketching 
as  I  am  for  salmon-fishing,"  said  he,  laughingly;  "and  for 
my  own  part,  I  like  scenery  and  landscape  very  well,  but 


THE  ROSARY  AT  INISTIOGE.  41 

think  them  marvellously  heightened  by  something  like  sport. 
Are  you  an  angler  ?  " 

"No,"  said  I;  *'I  know  nothing  of  the  gentle  craft" 

"Fond  of  shooting,  perhaps?  Some  men  think  the  two 
sports  incompatible." 

*'I  am  as  inexpert  with  the  gun  as  the  rod,"  said  I,. 
diffidently. 

I  perceived  that  the  sister  gave  a  sly  look  under  her  long 
eyelashes  towards  me:  but  what  its  meaning,  I  could  not 
well  discover.  Was  it  depreciation  of  a  man  who  avowed 
himself  unacquainted  with  the  sports  of  the  field,  or  was  it 
a  quiet  recognition  of  claims  more  worthy  of  regard  ?  At 
all  events,  I  perceived  that  she  had  very  soft,  gentle-looking 
gray  eyes,  a  very  fair  skin,  and  a  profusion  of  beautiful 
brown  hair.  I  had  not  thought  her  pretty  at  first.  I  now 
saw  that  she  was  extremely  pretty,  and  her  figure,  though 
slightly  given  to  fulness,  the  perfection  of  grace. 

Hungry,  almost  famished  as  I  was,  with  a  fast  of  twelve 
hours,  I  felt  no  impatience  so  long  as  she  moved  about 
in  preparation  for  the  meal.  How  she  disposed  the  little 
table  equipage,  the  careful  solicitude  with  which  she  ar- 
ranged the  fruit  and  the  flowers, —  not  always  satisfied  with 
her  first  dispositions,  but  changing  them  for  something  dif- 
ferent, —  all  interested  me  vastly,  and  when  at  last  we  were 
summoned  to  table,  I  actually  felt  sorry  and  disappointed. 

Was  it  really  so  delicious,  was  the  cookery  so  exquisite? 
I  own  frankly  that  I  am  not  a  trustworthy  witness ;  but  if 
toy  oath  could  be  taken,  I  am  willing  to  swear  that  I  believe 
there  never  were  such  salmon-steaks,  such  a  pigeon-pie, 
and  such  a  damson-tart  served  to  mortals  as  these.  My 
enthusiasm,  I  suspect,  must  have  betrayed  itself  in  some 
outward  manifestation,  for  I  remember  Crofton  laughingly 
having  remarked,  — 

"You  will  turn  my  sister's  head,  Mr.  Potts,  by  such  flat- 
teries; all  the  more,  since  her  cookery  is  self-taught." 

"Don't  believe  him,  Mr.  Potts;  I  have  studied  all  the 
great  masters  of  the  art,  and  you  shall  have  an  omelette 
to-morrow  for  breakfast,  Brillat  Savarin  himself  would  not 
despise." 

I  blushed  at  the  offer  of  an  hospitality  so  neatly  and  deli- 


42  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

cately  insinuated,  and  had  really  no  words  to  acknowledge 
it,  nor  was  my  confusion  unfavorably  judged  by  my  hosts. 
Crofton  marked  it  quickly,  and  said,  — 

*'Yes,  Mr.  Potts,  and  I  '11  teach  you  to  hook  a  trout  after- 
wards. Meanwhile  let  us  have  a  glass  of  Sauterne  to- 
gether; we  drink  it  out  of  green  glasses,  to  cheat  ourselves 
into  the  fancy  that  it's  Rhenish." 

"  *  Am  Rhein,  am  Rhein,  da  wachsen  unsere  Reben,'  "  said 
I,  quoting  the  students'  song. 

"Oh,  have  you  been  in  Germany?"  cried  she,  eagerly. 

*'Alas!  no,"  said  I.  "I  have  never  travelled."  I 
thought  she  looked  disappointed  as  I  said  this.  Indeed,  I 
already  wished  it  unsaid ;  but  her  brother  broke  in  with,  — 

"We  are  regular  vagabonds,  Mr.  Potts.  My  sister  and 
myself  have  had  a  restless  paroxysm  for  the  last  three  years 
of  life;  and  what  with  seeking  cool  spots  for  the  summer 
and  hot  climates  for  winter,  we  are  scarcely  ever  off  the 
road." 

"Like  the  gentleman,  I  suppose,  who  ate  oysters  for  appe- 
tite, but  carried  his  system  so  far  as  to  induce  indigestion." 
My  joke  failed;  nobody  laughed,  and  I  was  overwhelmed 
with  confusion,  which  I  was  fain  to  bury  in  my  strawberries 
and  cream. 

"Let  us  have  a  little  music,  Mary,"  said  Crofton.  "Do 
you  play  or  sing,  Mr.  Potts  ?  " 

"Neither.  I  do  nothing,"  cried  I,  in  despair.  "As 
Sydney  Smith  says,  'I  know  something  about  the  Romans,' 
but,  for  any  gift  or  grace  which  could  adorn  society,  or 
make  time  pass  more  pleasantly,  I  am  an  utter  bankrupt." 

The  young  girl  had,  while  I  was  speaking,  taken  her  place 
at  the  pianoforte,  and  was  half  listlessly  suffering  her  hands 
to  fall  in  chords  over  the  instrument. 

"Come  out  upon  this  terrace,  here,"  cried  Crofton  to  me, 
"and  we  '11  have  our  cigar.  What  I  call  a  regular  luxury 
after  a  hard  day  is  to  lounge  out  here  in  the  cool  night  air, 
and  enjoy  one's  weed  while  listening  to  Spohr  or  Beethoven." 

It  was  really  delightful.  The  bright  stars  were  all  reflected 
in  the  calm  river  down  below,  and  a  thousand  odors  floated 
softly  on  the  air  as  we  sat  there. 

Are  there  not  in  every  man's  experience  short  periods  in 


THE  ROSARY  AT  INISTIOGE.  43 

which  he  seemed  to  have  lived  longer  than  during  whole 
years  of  life?  They  tell  us  there  are  certain  conditions  of 
the  atmosphere,  inappreciable  as  to  the  qualities,  which 
seem  to  ripen  wines,  imparting  to  young  fresh  vintages  all 
the  mellow  richness  of  age,  all  the  depth  of  flavor,  all  the 
velvety  softness  of  time.  May  there  not  possibly  be  influ- 
ences which  similarly  affect  our  natures  ?  May  there  not  be 
seasons  in  which  changes  as  great  as  these  are  wrought 
within  us?  I  firmly  believe  it,  and  as  firmly  that  such  a 
period  was  that  in  which  I  sat  on  the  balcony  over  the 
Nore,  listening  to  Mary  Crofton  as  she  sang,  but  just  as 
often  lost  to  every  sound,  and  deep  in  a  heaven  of  blended 
enjoyments,  of  which  no  one  ingredient  was  in  the  ascendant. 
Starry  sky,  rippling  river,  murmuring  night  winds,  perfumed 
air,  floating  music,  all  mingling  as  do  the  odors  of  an  in- 
cense, and,  like  an  incense,  filling  the  brain  with  a  delicious 
intoxication. 

Hour  after  hour  must  have  passed  with  me  in  this  half- 
oonscious  ecstasy,  for  Crofton  at  last  said,  — 

"There,  where  you  see  that  pinkish  tint  through  the  gray, 
that 's  the  sign  of  breaking  day,  and  the  signal  for  bedtime. 
Shall  I  show  you  your  room  ?  " 

"How  I  wish  this  could  last  forever!  "  cried  I,  raptu- 
rously ;  and  then,  half  ashamed  of  my  warmth,  I  stammered 
out  a  good-night,  and  retired. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MY    SELF-EXAMINATION. 

Our  life  at  the  Rosary  —  for  it  was  our  life  now  of  which  I 
have  to  speak  —  was  one  of  unbroken  enjoyment.  On  fine 
days  we  fished;  that  is,  Crofton  did,  and  I  loitered  along 
some  river's  bank  till  I  found  a  quiet  spot  to  plant  my  rod, 
and  stretch  myself  on  the  grass,  now  reading,  of  tener  dream- 
ing, such  glorious  dreams  as  only  come  in  the  leafy  shading 
of  summer  time,  to  a  mind  enraptured  with  all  around  it. 
The  lovely  scenery  and  the  perfect  solitude  of  the  spot  minis- 
tered well  to  my  fanciful  mood,  and  left  me  free  to  weave 
the  most  glittering  web  of  incident  for  my  future.  So 
utterly  was  all  the  past  blotted  from  my  memory  that  I  re- 
called nothing  of  existence  more  remote  than  my  first  even- 
ing at  the  cottage.  If  for  a  parting  instant  a  thought  of 
bygones  would  obtrude,  I  hastened  to  escape  from  it  as 
from  a  gloomy  reminiscence.  I  turned  away  as  would  a 
dreamer  who  dreaded  to  awaken  out  of  some  delicious 
vision,  and  who  would  not  face  the  dull  aspect  of  reality. 
Three  weeks  thus  glided  by  of  such  happiness  as  I  can 
scarcely  yet  recall  without  emotion!  The  Croftons  had 
come  to  treat  me  like  a  brother;  they  spoke  of  family  events 
in  all  freedom  before  me;  talked  of  the  most  confidential 
things  in  my  presence,  and  discussed  their  future  plans  and 
their  means  as  freely  in  my  hearing  as  though  I  had  been 
kith  and  kin  with  them.  I  learned  that  they  were  orphans, 
educated  and  brought  up  by  a  rich,  eccentric  uncle,  who 
lived  in  a  sort  of  costly  reclusion  in  one  of  the  Cumberland 
dales;  Edward,  who  had  served  in  the  army,  and  been 
wounded  in  an  Indian  campaign,  had  given  up  the  service 
in  a  fit  of  impatience  of  being  passed  over  in  promotion* 


MY  SELF-EXAMINATION.  45 

His  uncle  resented  the  rash  step  by  withdrawing  the  liberal 
allowance  he  had  usually  made  him,  and  they  quarrelled. 
Mary  Crofton,  espousing  her  brother's  side,  quitted  her 
guardian's  roof  to  join  his;  and  thus  had  they  rambled 
about  the  world  for  two  or  three  years,  on  means  scanty 
enough,  but  still  sufficient  to  provide  for  those  who  neither 
sought  to  enter  society  nor  partake  of  its  pleasures. 

As  I  advanced  in  the  intimacy,  I  became  depository  of 
the  secrets  of  each.  Edward's  was  the  sorrow  he  felt  for 
having  involved  his  sister  in  his  own  ruin,  and  been  the 
means  of  separating  her  from  one  so  well  able  and  so  will- 
ing to  befriend  her.  Hers  was  the  more  bitter  thought  that 
their  narrow  means  should  prejudice  her  brother's  chances 
of  recovery,  for  his  chest  had  shown  symptoms  of  danger- 
ous disease  requiring  all  that  climate  and  consummate  care 
might  do  to  overcome.  Preyed  on  incessantly  by  this  reflec- 
tion, unable  to  banish  it,  equally  unable  to  resist  its  force, 
;she  took  the  first  and  only  step  she  had  ever  adventured 
without  his  knowledge,  and  had  written  to  her  uncle  a  long 
letter  of  explanations  and  entreaty. 

I  saw  the  letter,  and  read  it  carefully.  It  was  all  that 
sisterly  love  and  affection  could  dictate,  accompanied  by  a 
isense  of  dignity,  that  if  her  appeal  should  be  unsuccessful, 
no  slight  should  be  passed  upon  her  brother,  who  was  un- 
aware of  the  step  thus  taken.  To  express  this  sufficiently, 
she  was  driven  to  the  acknowledgment  that  Edward  would 
never  have  himself  stooped  to  the  appeal;  and  so  careful 
was  she  of  his  honor  in  this  respect,  that  she  repeated  —  with 
what  appeared  to  me  unnecessary  insistence  —  that  the  re- 
quest should  be  regarded  as  hers,  and  hers  only.  In  fact, 
this  was  the  uppermost  sentiment  in  the  whole  epistle.  I 
ventured  to  say  as  much,  and  endeavored  to  induce  her 
to  moderate  in  some  degree  the  amount  of  this  pretension; 
but  she  resisted  firmly  and  decidedly.  Now,  I  have  recorded 
this  circumstance  here,  —  less  for  itself  than  to  mention  how 
by  its  means  this  little  controversy  led  to  a  great  intimacy 
between  us,  —  inducing  us,  while  defending  our  separate 
views,  to  discuss  each  other's  motives,  and  even  characters, 
with  the  widest  freedom.  I  called  her  enthusiast,  and  in 
return  she  styled  me  worldly  and  calculating ;  and,  indeed, 


46  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  tried  to  seem  so,  and  fortified  my  opinions  by  prudential 
maxims  and  severe  reflections  I  should  have  been  sorely 
indisposed  to  adopt  in  my  own  case.  I  believe  she  saw  all 
this.  I  am  sure  she  read  me  aright,  and  perceived  that  I 
was  arguing  against  my  own  convictions.  At  all  events, 
day  after  day  went  over,  and  no  answer  came  to  the  letter. 
I  used  to  go  each  morning  to  the  post  in  the  village  to 
inquire,  but  always  returned  with  the  same  disheartening 
tidings,  *' Nothing  to-day!" 

One  of  these  mornings  it  was,  that  I  was  returning  dis- 
consolately from  the  village,  Crofton,  whom  I  believed  at 
the  time  miles  away  on  the  mountains,  overtook  me.  He 
came  up  from  behind,  and,  passing  his  arm  within  mine, 
walked  on  some  minutes  without  speaking.  I  saw  plainly 
there  was  something  on  his  mind,  and  I  half  dreaded  lest 
he  might  have  discovered  his  sister's  secret  and  have  dis- 
approved of  my  share  in  it. 

'' Algy,"  said  he,  calling  me  by  my  Christian  name,  which 
he  very  rarely  did,  "I  have  something  to  say  to  you.  Can 
I  be  quite  certain  that  you  '11  take  my  frankness  in  good 
part?" 

*'You  can,"  I  said,  with  a  great  effort  to  seem  calm  and 
assured. 

"You  give  me  your  word  upon  it?" 

"I  do,"  said  I,  trying  to  appear  bold;  ''and  my  hand  be 
witness  of  it." 

"Well,"  he  resumed,  drawing  a  long  breath,  "here  it  is. 
I  have  remarked  that  for  above  a  week  back  you  have  never 
waited  for  the  postboy's  return  to  the  cottage,  but  always 
have  come  down  to  the  village  yourself." 

I  nodded  assent,  but  said  nothing. 

"I  have  remarked,  besides,"  said  he,  "that  when  told  at 
the  office  there  was  no  letter  for  you,  you  came  away  sad- 
looking  and  fretted,  scarcely  spoke  for  some  time,  and 
seemed  altogether  downcast  and  depressed." 

"I  don't  deny  it,"  I  said  calmly. 

"Well,"  continued  he,  "some  old  experiences  of  mine 
have  taught  me  that  this  sort  of  anxiety  has  generally  but 
one  source,  with  fellows  of  our  age,  and  which  simply  means 
that  the  remittance  we  have  counted  upon  as  certain  has 


MY  SELF-EXAMINATION.  47 

been,  from  some  cause  or  other,  delayed.  Is  n't  that  the 
truth?" 

'*  No,"  said  I,  joyfully,  for  I  was  greatly  relieved  by  his 
words ;  "no,  on  my  honor,  nothing  of  the  kind." 

"  I  may  not  have  hit  the  thing  exactly,"  said  he,  hurriedly, 
*'  but  I  '11  be  sworn  it  is  a  money  matter ;  and  if  a  couple  of 
hundred  pounds  be  of  the  least  service  —  " 

**My  dear,  kind-hearted  fellow,"  I  broke  in,  ''I  can't 
endure  this  longer :  it  is  no  question  of  money  ;  it  is  nothing 
that  affects  my  means,  though  I  half  wish  it  were,  to  show 
you  how  cheerfully  I  could  owe  you  my  escape  from  a  diffi- 
culty, —  not,  indeed,  that  I  need  another  tie  to  bind  me  to 
you  —  "  But  I  could  say  no  more,  for  my  eyes  were  swim- 
ming over,  and  my  lips  trembling. 

"  Then,"  cried  he,  ''I  have  only  to  ask  pardon  for  thus 
obtruding  upon  your  confidence." 

I  was  too  full  of  emotion  to  do  more  than  squeeze  his 
hand  affectionately,  and  thus  we  walked  along,  side  by  side, 
neither  uttering  a  word.  At  last,  and  as  it  were  with  an 
effort,  by  a  bold  transition,  to  carry  our  thoughts  into  another 
and  very  different  channel,  he  said :  *'  Here  's  a  letter  from 
old  Dyke,  our  landlord.  The  worthy  father  has  been  enjoy- 
ing himself  in  a  tour  of  English  watering-places,  and  has  now 
started  for  a  few  weeks  up  the  Rhine.  His  account  of  his 
holiday,  as  he  calls  it,  is  amusing ;  nor  less  so  is  the  finan- 
cial accident  to  which  he  owes  the  excursion.  Take  it,  and 
read  it,"  he  added,  giving  me  the  epistle.  '*  If  the  style  be 
the  man,  his  reverence  is  not  difficult  to  decipher." 

I  bestowed  little  attention  on  this  speech,  uttered,  as  I 
perceived,  rather  from  the  impulse  of  starting  a  new  topic 
than  anything  else,  and,  taking  the  letter  half  mechanically, 
I  thrust  it  in  my  pocket.  One  or  two  efforts  we  made  at 
conversation  were  equally  failures,  and  it  was  a  relief  to  me 
when  Crofton,  suddenly  remembering  some  night-lines  he  had 
laid  in  a  mountain  lake  a  few  miles  off,  hastily  shook  my 
hand,  and  said,  "  Good-bye  till  dinner-time." 

When  I  reached  the  cottage,  instead  of  entering  I  strolled 
into  the  garden,  and  sought  out  a  little  summer-house  of 
sweet-brier  and  honeysuckle,  on  the  edge  of  the  river. 
Some  strange,  vague  impression  was  on  me,  that  I  needed 


48  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

time  and  place  to  commune  with  myself  and  be  alone ;  that  a 
large  unsettled  account  lay  between  me  and  my  conscience, 
which  could  not  be  longer  deferred ;  but  of  what  nature,  how 
originating,  and  how  tending,  I  know  nothing  whatever. 

I  resolved  to  submit  myself  to  a  searching  examination, 
to  ascertain  what  1  might  about  myself.  In  my  favorite 
German  authors  I  had  frequently  read  that  men's  failures 
in  life  were  chiefly  owing  to  neglect  of  this  habit  of  self- 
investigation  ;  that  though  we  calculate  well  the  dangers  and 
difficulties  of  an  enterprise,  we  omit  the  more  important 
estimate  of  what  may  be  our  capacity  to  effect  an  object, 
what  are  our  resources,  wherein  our  deficiencies. 

"  Now  for  it,"  I  thought,  as  I  entered  the  little  arbor, 
—  '^  now  for  it.  Potts ;  kiss  the  book,  and  tell  the  whole 
truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth." 

As  I  said  th^s,  I  took  off  my  hat  and  bowed  respectfully 
around  to  the  members  of  an  imaginary  court.  "  My 
name,"  said  I,  in  a  clear  and  respectful  voice,  "  is  Algernon 
Sydney  Potts.  If  I  be  pushed  to  the  avowal,  I  am  sorry  it 
is  Potts.  Algernon  Sydney  do  a  deal,  but  they  can't  do 
everything,  —  not  to  say  that  captious  folk  see  a  certain 
bathos  in  the  collocatipn  with  my  surname.  Can  a  man 
hope  to  make  such  a  name  illustrious?  Can  he  aspire  to 
the  notion  of  a  time  when  people  will  allude  to  the  great 
Potts,  the  celebrated  Potts,  the  immortal  Potts  ?  "  I  grew 
very  red,  I  felt  my  cheek  on  fire  as  I  uttered  this,  and  I 
suddenly  bethought  me  of  Mr.  Pitt,  and  I  said  aloud,  "  And, 
if  Pitt,  why  not  Potts?  "  That  was  a  most  healing  recollec- 
tion. I  revelled  in  it  for  a  long  time.  "  How  true  is  it,"  I 
continued,  "that  the  halo  of  greatness  illumines  all  within 
its  circle,  and  the  man  is  merged  in  the  grandeur  of  his 
achievements.  The  men  who  start  in  life  with  high  sounding 
designations  have  but  to  fill  a  foregone  pledge,  — to  pay  the 
bill  that  fortune  has  endorsed.  Not  so  was  our  case,  Pitt. 
To  us  is  it  to  lay  every  foundation  stone  of  our  future 
greatness.  There  was  nothing  in  your  surname  to  foretell  you 
would  be  a  Minister  of  State  at  one-and-thirty,  —  there  is  no 
letter  of  mine  to  indicate  what  I  shall  be.  But  what  is  it 
that  I  am  to  be?  Is  it  Poet,  Philosopher,  Politician,  Soldier, 
-or  Discoverer?     Am  I  to  be  great  in  Art,  or  illustrious  in 


MY  SELF-EXAMINATION.  49 

Jjetters?  Is  there  to  be  an  ice  tract  of  Behring's  Straits 
called  Potts's  Point,  or  a  planet  styled  Pottsium  Sidus  ?  And 
when  centuries  have  rolled  over,  will  historians  have  their 
diflSculty  about  the  first  Potts,  and  what  his  opinions  were 
on  this  subject  or  that?" 

Then  came  a  low  soft  sound  of  half -suppressed  laughter, 
and  then  the  rustle  of  a  muslin  dress  hastily  brushing  through 
the  trees.  I  rushed  out  from  my  retreat,  and  hurried  down 
the  walk.  No  one  to  be  seen,  —  not  a  soul ;  not  a  sound, 
either,  to  be  heard. 

*'  No  use  hiding,  Mary,"  I  called  out,  "  I  saw  you  all  the 
time ;  my  mock  confession  was  got  up  merely  to  amuse  you. 
Come  out  boldly  and  laugh  as  long  as  you  will."  No  answer. 
This  refusal  amazed  me.  It  was  like  a  disbelief  in  my  asser- 
tion. "  Come,  come !  "  I  cried,  "  you  can't  pretend  to  think 
I  was  serious  in  all  this  vainglorious  nonsense.  Come,  Mary, 
and  let  us  enjoy  the  laugh  at  it  together.  If  you  don't,  I 
shall  be  angry.     I'll  take  it  ill,  — very  ill." 

Still  no  reply.  Could  I,  then,  have  been  deceived  ?  Was 
it  a  mere  delusion  ?  But  no ;  I  heard  the  low  laugh,  and  the 
rustle  of  the  dress,  and  the  quick  tread  upon  the  gravel,  too 
plainly  for  any  mistake,  and  so  I  returned  to  the  cottage  in 
chagrin  and  ill-temper.  As  I  passed  the  open  windows'  of 
the  little  drawing-room  I  saw  Mary  seated  at  her  work,  with, 
as  was  her  custom,  an  open  book  on  a  little  table  beside  her. 
Absorbed  as  she  was,  she  did  not  lift  her  head,  nor  notice  my 
approach  till  I  entered  the  room. 

'*  You  have  no  letter  for  me?  "  she  cried,  in  a  voice  of  sor- 
rowful meaning. 

"  None,"  said  I  scrutinizing  her  closely,  and  sorely 
puzzled  what  to  make  of  her  calm  deportment.  *'  Have 
you  been  out  in  the  garden  this  morning?"  I  asked, 
abruptly. 

"  No,"  said  she,  frankly. 

"  Not  quitted  the  house  at  all?  " 

" No.    Why  do  you  ask? "  cried  she,  in  some  surprise. 

"  I  '11  tell  you,"  I  said,  sitting  down  at  her  side,  and  speak- 
ing in  a  low  and  confidential  tone ;  "  a  strange  thing  has  just 
happened  to  me."  And  with  that  I  narrated  the  incident, 
glossing  over,  as  best  I  might,  the  absurdity  of  my  soliloquiz- 

4 


60  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

ing,  and  the  nature  of  the  self-examination  I  was  engaged  in. 
Without  waiting  for  me  to  finish,  she  broke  in  suddenly  with 
a  low  laugh,  and  said,  — 

''  It  must  have  been  Rose." 

''  And  who  is  Rose?"  I  asked  half  sternly. 

"  A  cousin  of  ours,  a  mere  school-girl,  who  has  just 
arrived.  She  came  by  the  mail  this  morning,  when  you 
were  out.  But  here  she  is,  coming  up  the  walk.  Just 
step  behind  that  screen,  and  you  shall  have  your  revenge. 
I  '11  make  her  tell  everything." 

I  had  barely  time  to  conceal  myself,  when,  with  a  merry 
laugh,  a  fresh,  girlish  voice  called  out,  "I've  seen  him! 
I  have  seen  him,  Mary !  I  was  sitting  on  the  rock  beside 
the  river,  when  he  came  into  the  summer-house,  and, 
fancying  himself  alone  and  unseen,  proceeded  to  make  his 
confession  to  himself." 

''  His  confession  !  What  do  you  mean?  " 

"I  don't  exactly  know  whether  that  be  the  proper  name 
for  it,  but  it  was  a  sort  of  self-examination,  not  very 
painful,  certainly,  inasmuch  as  it  was  rather  flattering  than 
otherwise." 

*'  I  really  cannot  understand  you.  Rose." 

''I'm  not  surprised,"  said  she,  laughing  again.  "  It  was 
some  time  before  I  could  satisfy  myself  that  he  was  not 
talking  to  somebody  else,  or  reading  out  of  a  book ;  and 
when,  peeping  through  the  leaves,  I  perceived  he  was  quite 
alone,  I  almost  screamed  out  with  laughing." 

"But  why,  child?  What  was  the  absurdity  that  amused 
you?" 

"Fancy  the  creature.  I  need  not  describe  him,  Molly. 
You  know  him  well,  with  his  great  staring  light-green  eyes, 
and  his  wild  yellow  hair.  Imagine  his  walking  madly  to 
and  fro,  tossing  his  long  arms  about  in  uncouth  gestures, 
while  he  asked  himself  seriously  whether  he  would  n't  be 
Shakspeare,  or  Milton,  or  Michael  Angelo,  or  Nelson. 
Fancy  his  gravely  inquiring  of  himself  what  remarkable 
qualities  predominated  in  his  nature :  was  he  more  of  a 
sculptor,  or  a  politician,  or  had  fate  destined  him  to  dis- 
cover new  worlds,  or  to  conquer  the  old  ones  ?  If  I  had  n't 
been  actually  listening  to  the  creature,  and  occasionally  look- 


MY  SELF-EXAMINATION.  61 

ing  at  him,  too,  I'd  have  doubted  my  senses.  Oh  dear! 
shall  I  ever  forget  the  earnest  absurdity  of  his  manner 
as   he   said  something  about  the  '  immortal  Potts  '  ?  " 

The  reminiscence  was  too  much  for  her,  for  she  threw  her- 
self on  a  sofa  and  laughed  immoderately.  As  for  me,  un- 
able to  endure  more,  and  fearful  that  Mary  might  finish  by 
discovering  me,  I  stole  from  the  room,  and  rushed  out  into 
the  wood. 

What  is  it  that  renders  ridicule  more  insupportable  than 
vituperation?  Why  is  the  violence  of  passion  itself  more 
easy  to  endure  than  the  sting  of  sarcastic  satire?  What 
weak  spot  in  our  nature  does  this  peculiar  passion  assail? 
And,  again,  why  are  all  the  noble  aspirations  of  high-hearted 
enthusiasm,  the  grand  self-reliance  of  daring  minds,  ever  to 
be  made  the  theme  of  such  scoffings?  Have  the  scorners 
never  read  of  Wolfe,  of  Murat,  or  of  Nelson?  Has  not  a 
more  familiar  instance  reached  them  of  one  who  foretold  to 
an  unwilling  senate  the  time  when  they  would  hang  in  ex- 
pectancy on  his  words,  and  treasure  them  as  wisdom? 
Cruel,  narrow-minded,  and  unjust  world,  with  whom  nothing 
succeeds  except  success ! 

The  man  who  contracts  a  debt  is  never  called  cheat  till 
his  inability  to  discharge  it  has  been  proven  clearly  and 
beyond  a  doubt ;  but  he  who  enters  into  an  engagement  with 
his  own  heart  to  gain  a  certain  prize,  or  reach  a  certain  goal, 
is  made  a  mockery  and  a  sneer  by  all  whose  own  humble 
faculties  represent  such  striving  as  impossible.  From 
thoughts  like  these  I  went  on  to  speculate  whether  I  should 
ever  be  able,  in  the  zenith  of  my  great  success,  to  forgive 
those  captious  and  disparaging  critics  who  had  once  endeav- 
ored to  damp  my  ardor  and  bar  my  career.  I  own  I  found 
it  exceedingly  difficult  to  be  generous,  and  in  particular  to 
that  young  minx  of  sixteen  who  had  dared  to  make  a  jest  of 
my  pretensions. 

I  wandered  along  thus  for  hours.  Many  a  grassy  path 
of  even  sward  led  through  the  forest,  and,  taking  one  of  those 
which  skirted  the  stream,  I  strolled  along,  unconscious  alike 
of  time  and  place.  Out  of  the  purely  personal  interests 
which  occupied  my  mind  sprang  others,  and  I  bethought  me 
with  a  grim   satisfaction  of  the  severe  lesson  Mary   must 


52  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

have,  ere  this,  read  Kose  upon  her  presumption  and  her 
flippancy,  telling  her,  in  stern  accents,  how  behind  that 
screen  the  man  was  standing  she  had  dared  to  make  the  sub- 
ject of  her  laughter.  Oh,  how  she  blushes !  what  flush  of 
crimson  shame  spreads  over  her  face,  her  temples,  and  her 
neck ;  what  large  tears  overflow  her  lids,  and  fall  along  her 
cheeks !  I  actually  pity  her  suffering,  and  am  pained  at 
her  grief. 

''Spare  her,  dear  Mary!"  I  cry  out;  "after  all,  she  is 
but  a  child.  Why  blame  her  that  she  cannot  measure  great- 
ness, as  philosophers  measure  mountains,  by  the  shadow  ?  " 

Egotism,  in  every  one  of  its  moods  and  tenses,  must 
have  a  strong  fascination.  I  walked  on  for  many  a  mile 
while  thus  thinking,  without  the  slightest  sense  of  weariness, 
or  any  want  of  food.  The  morning  glided  over,  and  the  hot 
noon  was  passed,  and  the  day  was  sobering  down  into  the 
more  solemn  tints  of  coming  evening,  and  I  still  loitered,  or 
lay  in  the  tall  grass  deep  in  my  musings. 

In  taking  my  handkerchief  from  my  pocket,  I  accidentally 
drew  forth  the  priest's  letter,  and  in  a  sort  of  half -indolent 
curiosity,  proceeded  to  read  it.  The  hand  was  cramped  and 
rugged,  the  writing  that  of  a  man  to  whom  the  manual  part 
of  correspondence  is  a  heavy  burden,  and  who  consequently 
incurs  such  labor  as  rarely  as  is  possible.  The  composition 
had  all  the  charm  of  ease,  and  was  as  unstudied  as  need  be ; 
the  writer  being  evidently  one  who  cared  little  for  the  graces 
of  style,  satisfied  to  discuss  his  subject  in  the  familiar  terms 
of  his  ordinary  conversation. 

Although  I  did  not  mean  to  impose  more  than  an  extract 
from  it  on  my  reader,  I  must  reserve  even  that  much  for  my 
next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


FATHER   DYKE  S    LETTER. 


Father  Dyke  was  one  of  those  characters  which  Ireland 
alone  produces,  —  a  sporting  priest.  In  France,  Spain,  or 
Italy,  tlie  type  is  unknown.  Time  was,  when  the  abhe^  ele- 
gant, witty,  and  well-bred,  was  a  great  element  of  polished 
life ;  when  his  brilliant  conversation  and  his  insidious  ad- 
dress threw  all  the  charm  of  culture  over  a  society  which  was 
only  rescued  from  coarseness  by  the  marvellous  dexterity  of 
such  intellectual  gladiators.  They  have  passed  away,  like 
many  other  things  brilliant  and  striking :  the  gilded  coach, 
the  red-heeled  slipper,  and  the  supper  of  the  regency ;  the 
powdered  marquise,  for  a  smile  of  whose  dimpled  mouth  the 
deadly  rapier  has  flashed  in  the  moonlight;  the  perfumed 
beauty,  for  one  of  whose  glances  a  poet  would  have  racked 
his  brain  to  render  worthily  in  verse;  the  gilded  salon 
where,  in  a  sort  of  incense,  all  the  homage  of  genius  was 
offered  up  before  the  altar  of  loveliness,  —  gone  are  they  all ! 
Aufond^  the  world  is  pretty  much  the  same,  although  we 
drive  to  a  club  dinner  in  a  one-horse  brougham ;  and  if  we 
meet  the  cure  of  St.  Roch,  we  find  him  to  be  rather  a  morose 
middle-aged  man  with  a  taste  for  truffles,  and  a  talent  for 
silence.  It  is  not  as  the  successor  of  the  witty  abbe  that  I 
adduce  the  sporting  priest,  but  simply  as  a  variety  of  the 
ecclesiastical  character  which,  doubtless,  a  very  few  more 
years  will  have  consigned  to  the  realm  of  history.  He,  too, 
will  be  a  bygone !  Father  Tom,  as  he  was  popularly  called, 
never  needing  any  more  definite  designation,  was  tarn  Marte 
quam  Mercurio,  as  much  poacher  as  priest,  and  made  his 
sporting  acquirements  subservient  to  the  demands  of  an 
admirable  table.  The  thickest  salmon,  the  curdiest  trout, 
the  fattest  partridge,  and  the  most  tender  woodcock  smoked 


54  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

on  his  board,  and,  rumor  said,  cooked  with  a  delicacy  that 
more  pretentious  houses  could  not  rival.  In  the  great 
world  nothing  is  more  common  than  to  see  some  favored 
individual  permitted  to  do  things  which,  by  common  voice, 
are  proclaimed  impracticable  or  improper.  With  a  sort  of 
prescriptive  right  to  outrage  the  ordinances  of  society,  such 
people  accept  no  law  but  their  own  inclination,  and  seem  to 
declare  that  they  are  altogether  exempt  from  the  restraints 
that  bind  other  men.  In  a  small  way,  and  an  humble 
sphere,  Father  Tom  enjoyed  this  privilege,  and  there  was 
not  in  his  whole  county  to  be  found  one  man  churlish  or 
ungenerous  enough  to  dispute  it ;  and  thus  was  he  suffered 
to  throw  his  line,  snap  his  gun,  or  unleash  his  dog  in  pre- 
cincts where  many  with  higher  claims  had  been  refused 
permission. 

It  was  not  alone  that  he  enjoyed  the  invigorating  pleasure 
of  field  sports  in  practice,  but  he  delighted  in  everything 
which  bore  any  relationship  to  them.  There  was  not  a 
column  of  "  Bell's  Life  "  in  which  he  had  not  his  sympathy, 
—  the  pigeon  match,  the  pedestrian,  the  Yankee  trotter,  the 
champion  for  the  silver  sculls  at  Chelsea,  the  dog  ''Billy," 
were  all  subjects  of  interest  to  him.  Never  did  the  most 
inveterate  blue-stocking  more  delight  in  the  occasion  of 
meeting  a  great  celebrity  of  letters,  than  did  he  when  chance 
threw  him  in  the  way  of  the  jock  who  rode  the  winner  at  the 
Oaks,  or  the  "  Game  Chicken  '*  who  punished  the  *'  Croydon 
Pet "  in  the  prize  ring.  But  now  for  the  letter,  which  will  as 
fully  reveal  the  man  as  any  mere  description.  It  was  a  nar- 
rative of  races  he  had  attended,  and  rowing-matches  he  had 
witnessed,  with  little  episodes  of  hawking,  badger-drawing, 
and  cock-fighting  intermixed. 

"I  came  down  here  —  Brighton  —  to  swim  for  a  wa^er  of  five- 
and-twenty  sovereigns  against  a  Major  Blayse,  of  the  Third  Light 
Dragoon  Guards ;  we  made  the  match  after  mess  at  Aldershot,  when 
neither  of  us  was  anything  to  speak  of  too  sober ;  but  as  we  were 
backed  strongly,  —  he  rather  the  favorite,  —  there  was  no  way  of 
drawing  the  bet.  I  beat  him  after  a  hard  struggle ;  we  were  two 
hours  and  forty  minutes  in  the  water,  and  netted  about  sixty  pounds 
besides.  We  dined  with  the  depot  in  the  evening,  and  I  won  a  ten- 
pound  note  on  a  question  of  whether  there  ought  to  be  saffron  in  the 
American  drink  called  '  greased  lightning ;  *   but  this   was  not  the 


FATHER  DYKE'S  LETTER.  55 

only  piece  of  luck  that  attended  me,  as  you  shall  hear.  As  I  was 
taking  my  morning  canter  on  the  Downs,  I  perceived  that  a  stranger 
—  a  jockey-like  fellow,  not  quite  a  gentleman  but  near  it — seemed 
to  keep  me  in  view  ;  now  riding  past,  now  behind  me,  and  always 
bestowing  his  whole  attention  on  my  nag.  Of  course,  I  showed  the 
beast  off  to  the  best,  and  handled  him  skilfully.  I  thought  to  myself, 
he  likes  the  pony ;  he  '11  be  for  making  me  an  offer  for  him.  I  was 
right.  I  had  just  seated  myself  at  breakfast,  when  the  stranger 
sent  his  card,  with  a  request  to  speak  to  me.  He  was  a  foreigner, 
but  spoke  very  correct  English,  and  his  object  was  to  learn  if  I 
would  sell  my  horse.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  refused  at  once. 
The  animal  suited  me,  and  I  was  one  of  those  people  who  find  it  exces- 
sively difficult  to  be  mounted  to  their  satisfaction.  I  needed  temper, 
training,  action,  gentleness,  beauty,  high  courage,  and  perfect  stead- 
iness, and  a  number  of  such-like  seeming  incongruities.  He  looked 
a  little  impatient  at  all  this  ;  he  seemed  to  say,  '  I  know  all  this  kind 
of  nonsense ;  I  have  heard  shiploads  of  such  gammon  before.  Be 
frank  and  say  what 's  the  figure  ;  how  much  do  you  want  for  him  ?  ' 
He  looked  this,  I  say,  but  he  never  uttered  a  word,  and  at  last  I 
asked  him, — 

"  '  Are  you  a  dealer  ?  ' 

"  '  Well,'  said  he,  with  an  arch  smile,  '  something  in  that  line.' 

"  '  I  thought  so,'  said  I.     '  The  pony  is  a  rare  good  one.* 

"  He  nodded  assent. 

" '  He  can  jump  a  bar  of  his  own  height  ?  * 

"  Another  nod. 

"  '  And  he  's  as  fresh  on  his  legs —  ' 

" '  As  if  he  were  not  twfenty-six  years  old,*  he  broke  in. 

"'Twenty-six  fiddle-sticks!  Look  at  his  mouth;  he  has  an 
eight-year-old  mouth.' 

"  '  I  know  it,'  said  he,  dryly  ;  *  and  so  he  had  fourteen  years  ago. 
Will  you  take  fifty  sovereigns  for  him  ? '  he  added,  drawing  out  a 
handful  of  gold  from  his  pocket. 

"  '  No,'  said  I,  firmly  ;  '  nor  sixty,  nor  seventy,  nor  eighty  1 ' 

" '  I  am  sorry  to  have  intruded  upon  you,'  said  he,  rising,  '  and  I 
beg  you  to  excuse  me.  The  simple  fact  is,  that  I  am  one  who  gains 
his  living  by  horses,  and  it  is  only  possible  for  me  to  exist  by  the 
generosity  of  those  who  deal  with  me.' 

"  This  appeal  was  a  home  thrust,  and  I  said,  '  What  can  you 
afford  to  give?' 

"  *  All  I  have  here,*  said  he,  producing  a  handful  of  gold,  and 
spreading  it  on  the  table. 

"We  set  to  counting::,  and  there  were  sixty-seven  sovereigns  in 
the  mass.  I  swept  off  the  money  into  the  palm  of  my  hand,  and 
•aid,  *The  beast  is  yours.' 


56  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"  He  drew  a  long  breath,  as  if  to  relieve  his  heart  of  a  load  of 
care,  and  said,  '  Men  of  my  stamp,  and  who  lead  such  lives  as  I  do, 
are  rarely  superstitious.' 

"*Very  true,'  said  I,  with  a  nod  of  encouragement  for  him  to 
go  on. 

"  '  Well,'  said  he,  resuming,  *  I  never  thought  for  a  moment  that 
any  possibility  could  have  made  me  so.  If  ever  there  was  a  man 
that  laughed  at  lucky  and  unlucky  days,  despised  omens,  sneered  at 
warnings,  and  scorned  at  predictions,  I  was  he ;  and  yet  I  have  lived 
to  be  the  most  credulous  and  the  most  superstitious  of  men.  It  is 
now  fourteen  years  and  twenty-seven  days  —  I  remember  the  time 
to  an  hour  —  since  I  sold  that  pony  to  the  Prince  Ernest  von  Saxen- 
hausen,  and  since  that  day  I  never  had  luck.  So  long  as  I  owned 
him  all  went  well  with  me.  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  I  am  the  chief 
of  a  company  of  equestrians,  and  one  corps,  known  as  Klam's  Kunst- 
Reiters,  was  the  most  celebrated  on  the  Continent.  In  three  years 
I  made  three  hundred  thousand  guilders,  and  if  the  devil  had  not 
induced  me  to  sell  "  Schatzchen  "  —  that  was  his  name  —  I  should 
be  this  day  as  rich  as  Heman  Rothschild!  From  the  hour  he 
walked  out  of  the  circus  our  calamities  began.  I  lost  my  wife  by 
fever  at  Wiesbaden,  the  most  perfect  high-school  horsewoman  in 
Europe ;  my  son,  of  twenty  years  of  age,  fell,  and  dislocated  his 
neck  ;  the  year  after,  at  Vienna,  my  daughter  Gretchen  was  blinded 
riding  through  a  fiery  hoop  at  Homburg ;  and  four  years  later,  all  the 
company  died  of  yellow  fever  at  the  Havannah,  leaving  me  utterly 
beggared  and  ruined.  Now  these,  you  would  say,  though  great 
misfortunes,  are  all  in  the  course  of  common  events.  But  what  will 
you  say  when,  on  the  eve  of  each  of  them,  Schatzchen  appeared 
to  me  in  a  dream,  performing  some  well-known  feat  or  other,  and 
bringing  down,  as  he  ever  did,  thunders  of  applause  ;  and  never  did  he 
so  appear  without  a  disaster  coming  after.  I  struggled  hard  before 
I  suffered  this  notion  to  influence  me.  It  was  years  before  I  even 
mentioned  it  to  any  one  ;  and  I  used  for  a  while  to  make  a  jest  of  it 
in  the  circus,  saying,  "  Take  care  of  yourselves  to-night,  for  I  saw 
Schatzchen."  Of  course  they  were  not  the  stuff  to  be  deterred  by 
such  warnings,  but  they  became  so  at  last.  That  they  did,  and  were 
so  terrified,  so  thoroughly  terrified,  that  the  day  after  one  of  my 
visions  not  a  single  member  of  the  troupe  would  venture  on  a  hazard- 
ous feat  of  any  kind ;  and  if  we  performed  at  all,  it  was  only  some 
commonplace  exercises,  with  few  risks,  and  no  daring  exploits 
whatever.  Worn  out  with  evil  fortune,  crushed  and  almost  broken- 
hearted, I  struggled  on  for  years,  secretly  determining,  if  ever  I 
should  chance  upon  him,  to  buy  back  Schatzchen  with  my  last  penny 
in  the  world.  Indeed,  there  were  moments  in  which  such  was 
the  intense  excitement  of  my  mind,  I  could  have  committed  a  dread- 


FATHER  DYKE'S  LETTER.  57 

ful  crime  to  regain  possession  of  him.  We  were  on  the  eve  of  em- 
barking for  Ostend  the  other  night,  when  I  saw  you  riding  on  the 
Downs,  and  I  came  ashore  at  once  to  track  you  out,  for  I  knew  him, 
though  fully  half  a  mile  away.  None  of  my  comrades  could  guess 
what  detained  me,  nor  understand  why  I  asked  each  of  them  in  turn 
to  lend  me  whatever  money  he  could  spare.  It  was  in  this  way  I 
made  up  the  little  purse  you  see.  It  was  thus  provided  that  I  dared 
to  present  myself  to-day  before  you.' 

"  As  he  gave  me  this  narrative,  his  manner  grew  more  eager  and 
excited,  and  I  could  not  help  feeling  that  his  mind,  from  the  long- 
continued  pressure  of  one  thought,  had  received  a  serious  shock. 
It  was  exactly  one  of  those  cases  which  physicians  describe  as  leaving 
the  intellect  unimpaired,  while  some  one  faculty  is  under  the 
thraldom  of  a  dominant  and  all-pervading  impression.  I  saw  this 
more  palpably,  when,  having  declined  to  accept  more  than  his 
original  offer  of  fifty  pounds,  I  replaced  the  remainder  in  his  hand, 
he  evinced  scarcely  any  gratitude  for  my  liberaUty,  so  totally  was  he 
engrossed  by  the  idea  that  the  horse  was  now  his  own,  and  that 
Fortune  would  no  longer  have  any  pretext  for  using  him  so  severely 
as  before. 

"  *  I  don't  know,  —  I  cannot  know,'  said  he,  '  if  fortune  means  to 
deal  more  kindly  by  me  than  heretofore,  but  I  feel  a  sort  of  confidence 
in  the  future  now  ;  I  have  a  kind  of  trustful  courage  as  to  what  may 
come,  that  tells  me  no  disaster  will  deter  me,  no  mishap  cast  me  down.' 

"  These  were  his  words  as  he  arose  to  take  his  leave.  Of  his 
meeting  with  the  pony  I  am  afraid  to  trust  myself  to  speak.  It  was 
such  an  overflow  of  affection  as  one  might  witness  from  a  Ions: 
absent  brother  on  being  once  again  restored  to  his  own.  I  cannot 
say  that  the  beast  knew  him,  nor  would  I  go  so  far  as  to  assert  that 
he  did  not,  for  certainly  some  of  his  old  instincts  seemed  gradually 
to  revive  within  him  on  hearing  certain  words  ;  and  when  ordered 
to  take  a  respectful  farewell  of  me,  the  pony  planted  a  foreleg  on 
each  of  his  master's  shoulders,  and,  taking  off  his  hat  with  his  teeth, 
bowed  twice  or  thrice  in  the  most  deferential  fashion.  I  wished 
them  both  every  success  in  life,  and  we  parted.  As  I  took  my  even- 
ing's stroll  on  the  pier,  I  saw  them  embark  for  Ostend,  the  pony 
sheeted  most  carefully,  and  every  imaginable  precaution  taken  to 
insure  him  against  cold.  The  man  himself  was  poorly  clad,  and 
indifferently  provided  against  the  accidents  of  the  voyage.  He 
appeared  to  feel  that  the  disparity  required  a  word  of  apology,  for  he 
said,  in  a  whisper :  '  It  '11  soon  furnish  me  with  a  warm  cloak  ;  it  '11 
not  leave  me  long  in  difliculties  ! '  I  assure  you,  my  dear  Crofton, 
there  was  something  contagious  in  the  poor  fellow's  superstition,  for, 
as  he  sailed  away,  the  thought  lay  heavily  on  my  heart,  '  What  if  I, 
too,  should  have  parted  with  my  good  luck  in  life  ?    How  if  I  have 


CF 


58  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

bartered  my  fortune  for  a  few  pieces  of  money  ? '  The  longer  1 
dwelt  on  this  theme,  the  more  forcibly  did  it  strike  me.  My  original 
possession  of  the  animal  was  accomplished  in  a  way  that  aided  the 
illusion.     It  was  thus  I  won  him  on  a  hit  of  backgammon  !  " 

As  I  read  thus  far,  the  paper  dropped  from  my  hands,  my 
head  reeled,  and  in  a  faint  dreamy  state,  as  if  drugged  by 
some  strong  narcotic,  I  sank,  I  know  not  how  long,  uncon- 
scious. The  first  thing  which  met  my  eyes  on  awakening, 
was  the  line,  ''  I  won  him  on  a  hit  of  backgammon!  "  The 
whole  story  was  at  once  before  me.  It  was  of  Blondel  I 
was  reading!  Blondel  was  the  beast  whose  influence  had 
swayed  one  man's  destiny.  So  long  as  he  owned  him,  the 
world  went  well  and  happily  with  him  ;  all  prospered  and 
succeeded.  It  was  a  charm  like  the  old  lamp  of  Aladdin. 
And  this  was  the  treasure  I  had  lost.  So  far  from  imputing 
an  ignorant  superstition  to  the  German,  I  concurred  in  every 
speculation,  every  theory  of  his  invention.  The  man  had 
evidently  discovered  one  of  those  curious  problems  in  what 
we  rashly  call  the  doctrine  of  chances.  It  was  not  the 
animal  himself  that  secured  good  fortune,  it  was  that,  in  his 
"  circumstances,"  what  Strauff  calls  ''  die  umringende  Bege- 
benheiten  "  of  his  lot,  this  creature  was  sure  to  call  forth 
efforts  and  develop  resources  in  his  possessor,  of  which, 
without  his  aid,  he  would  have  gone  all  through  life 
unconscious. 

The  vulgar  notion  that  our  lives  are  the  sport  of  accident, 
—  the  minute  too  early  or  too  late,  the  caim  that  detained 
us,  the  snow-storm  that  blocked  the  road,  the  chance  meet- 
ing with  this  or  that  man,  which  we  lay  such  stress  on,  — 
what  are  they  in  reality  but  trivial  incidents  without  force 
or  effect,  save  that  they  impel  to  action?  They  call  out 
certain  qualities  in  our  nature  by  which  our  whole  characters 
become  modified.  Your  horse  balks  at  a  fence,  and  throws 
you  over  his  head ;  the  fall  is  not  a  very  grave  one,  and  you 
are  scarcely  hurt ;  you  have  fallen  into  a  turnip-field,  and  the 
honest  fellow,  who  is  hoeing  away  near,  comes  kindly  to 
your  aid,  and,  in  good  Samaritan  fashion,  bathes  your  temples 
and  restores  you.  When  you  leave  him  at  last,  you  go  forth 
with  a  kindlier  notion  of  human  nature ;  you  recognize  the 
tie  "  that  makes  the  whole  world  kin,"  and  you  seem  to  think 


FATHER  DYKE'S  LETTER.  59 

that  hard  toil  hardens  not  the  heart,  nor  a  life  of  labor 
shuts  out  generous  sympathies,  —  the  lesson  is  a  life  one. 
But  suppose  that  in  your  fall  you  alight  on  a  bed  of  choice 
tulips,  you  descend  in  the  midst  of  a  rich  parterre  of  starry 
anemones,  and  that  your  first  conscious  struggles  are  met 
with  words  of  anger  and  reproach;  instead  of  sorrow  for 
your  suffering,  you  hear  sarcasms  on  your  horsemanship,  and 
insults  on  your  riding,  —  no  sympathy,  no  kindness,  no  gener- 
ous anxiety  for  your  safety,  but  all  that  irritate  and  offend, 
—  more  thought,  in  fact,  for  the  petals  of  a  flower  than  for 
the  ligaments  of  your  knee,  —  then,  too,  is  the  lesson  a  life 
one,  and  its  fruits  will  be  bitter  memories  for  many  a  year. 
The  events  of  our  existence  are  in  reality  nothing,  save  in 
our  treatment  of  them.  By  Blondel,  I  recognized  one  of 
those  suggestive  influences  which  mould  fate  by  moulding 
temperament.  The  deep  reflecting  German  saw  this :  it  was 
clear  he  knew  that  in  that  animal  was  typified  all  that  his  life 
might  become.  Why  should  not  I  contest  the  prize  with  him  ? 
Blondel  was  charged  with  another  destiny  as  well  as  his. 

I  turned  once  more  to  the  letter,  but  I  could  not  bear  to 
read  it ;  so  many  were  the  impertinent  allusions  to  myself, 
my  manner,  my  appearance,  and  my  conversation.  Still 
more  insulting  were  the  speculations  as  to  what  class  or  con- 
dition I  belonged  to.  "He  puzzled  us  completely,"  wrote 
the  priest,  "  for  while  unmistakably  vulgar  in  many  things, 
there  were  certain  indications  of  reading  and  education  about 
him  that  refuted  the  notion  of  his  being  what  Keldrum 
thought,  —  an  escaped  counter-jumper !  The  Guardsman  in- 
sisted he  was  a  valet ;  my  own  impression  was,  the  fellow 
had  kept  a  small  circulating  library,  and  gone  mad  with  the 
three-volume  novels.  At  all  events,  I  have  given  him  a 
lesson  which,  whether  profitable  or  not  to  him^  has  turned 
out  tolerably  well  for  me.  If  ever  you  chance  to  hear  of 
him,  —  his  name  was  Podder  or  Pedder,  I  think,  —  pray  let 
me  know,  for  my  curiosity  is  still  unslaked  about  him."  He 
thence  went  off  to  a  sort  of  descriptive  catalogue  of  my  signs 
and  tokens,  so  positively  insulting  that  I  cannot  recall  it; 
the  whole  winding  up:  "Add  to  all  these  an  immense 
pomposity  of  tone,  with  a  lisp,  and  a  Dublin  accent,  and 
you  can  scarcely  mistake   him."     Need  I  say,   benevolent 


60  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

reader,  that  fouler  calumnies  were  never  uttered,  nor  more 
unfounded  slanders  ever  pronounced? 

It  is  not  in  this  age  of  photography  that  a  man  need  de- 
fend his  appearance.  By  the  aid  of  sun  and  collodion,  I 
may,  perhaps,  one  day  convince  you  that  I  am  not  so  devoid 
of  personal  graces  as  this  foul-mouthed  priest  would  per- 
suade you.  I  am,  possibly,  in  this  pledge,  exceeding  the 
exact  limits  which  this  publication  may  enable  me  to  sus- 
tain. I  may  be  contracting  an  engagement  which  cannot 
be,  consistent  with  its  principles,  fulfilled.  If  so,  I  must 
be  your  artist;  but  I  swear  to  you,  that  I  shall  not  flatter. 
Potts,  painted  by  himself,  shall  be  a  true  portrait.  Mean- 
while I  have  time  to  look  out  for  my  canvas,  and  you  will 
be  patient  enough  to  wait  till  it  be  filled. 

Again  to  this  confounded  letter :  — 

"  There  is  another  reason  "  (wrote  Dyke  )  "  why  I  should  like  to 
chance  upon  this  fellow."  ("  This  fellow  "  meant  me.)  "  I  used  to 
fancy  myself  unequalled  in  the  imaginative  department  of  conversa- 
tion, by  the  vulgar  called  lying.  Here,  I  own,  with  some  shame,  he 
was  my  match.  A  more  fearless,  determined,  go-ahead  liar,  I  never 
met.  Now,  as  one  who  deems  himself  no  small  proficient  in  the 
art,  I  would  really  like  to  meet  him  once  more.  We  could  approach 
each  other  like  the  augurs  of  old,  and  agree  to  be  candid  and 
free-spoken  together,  exchanging  our  ideas  on  this  great  topic,  and 
frankly  communicating  any  secret  knowledge  each  might  deem 
that  he  possessed.  I  'd  go  a  hundred  miles  to  pass  an  evening 
with  him  alone,  to  hear  from  his  own  lips  the  sort  of  early  training  and 
discipline  his  mind  went  through,  —  who  were  his  first  instructors,, 
what  his  original  inducements.  Of  one  thing  I  feel  certain  :  a  man 
thus  constituted  has  only  to  put  the  curb  upon  his  faculty  to  be  most 
successful  in  life,  his  perils  will  all  lie  in  the  exuberance  of  his 
resources;  let  him  simply  bend  himself  to  believe  in  some  of  the 
impositions  he  would  force  upon  others.  Let  him  give  his  delusions 
the  force  acquired  by  convictions,  and  there  is  no  limit  to  what  he 
may  become.  Be  on  the  lookout,  therefore,  for  him,  as  a  great 
psychological  phenomenon,  the  man  who  outlied 

"  Your  sincerely  attached  friend, 

"  Thomas  Darcy  Dyke. 

"  P.  S.  I  have  just  remembered  his  name.  It  was  Potts ;  the 
villain  said  from  the  Pozzo  di  Borgo  family.  I  'm  sure  with  this  hint 
you  can't  fail  to  run  him  to  earth ;  and  I  entreat  of  you  spare  no 
pains  to  do  it." 


FATHER  DYKE'S  LETTER.  61 

There  followed  here  some  more  impertinent  personalities 
as  clews  to  my  discovery,  which  my  indulgent  reader  will 
graciously  excuse  me  if  I  do  not  stop  to  record ;  enough  to 
say  they  were  as  unfounded  as  they  were  scurrilous. 

Another  and  very  different  train  of  thought,  however,  soon 
banished  these  considerations.  This  letter  had  been  given 
me  by  Crofton,  who  had  already  read  it;  he  had  perused 
all  this  insolent  narrative  about  me  before  handing  it  to 
me,  and  doubtless,  in  so  doing,  had  no  other  intention  than 
to  convey,  in  the  briefest  and  most  emphatic  way  to  me, 
that  I  was  found  out.  It  was  simply  saying,  in  the  shortest 
possible  space,  ''Thou  art.  the  man!*'  Oh,  the  ineffable 
shame  and  misery  of  that  thought!  Oh,  the  bitterness  of 
feeling!  How  my  character  should  now  be  viewed  and  my 
future  discussed!  "Only  think,  Mary,"  I  fancied  I  heard 
him  say,  —  "only  think  who  our  friend  should  turn  out  to 
be,  —  this  same  Potts :  the  fellow  that  vanquished  Father 
Dyke  in  s^ory- telling,  and  outlied  the  priest!  And  here  we 
have  been  lavishing  kindness  and  attentions  upon  one  who, 
after  all,  is  little  better  than  a  swindler,  sailing  under  false 
colors  and  fictitious  credentials ;  for  who  can  now  credit  one 
syllable  about  his  having  written  those  verses  he  read  for 
us,  or  composed  that  tale  of  which  he  told  us  the  opening  ? 
What  a  lesson  in  future  about  extending  confidence  to  utter 
strangers!  What  caution  and  reserve  should  it  not  teach 
us !  How  guarded  should  we  be  not  to  suffer  ourselves  to  be 
fascinated  by  the  captivations  of  manner  and  the  insinuating 
charms  of  address !  If  Potts  had  been  less  prepossessing  in 
appearance,  less  gifted  and  agreeable,  —  if,  instead  of  being 
a  consummate  man  of  the  world,  with  the  breeding  of  a 
courtier  and  the  knowledge  of  a  scholar,  he  had  been  a  pedan- 
tic puppy  with  a  lisp  and  a  Dublin  accent  —  "  Oh,  igno- 
miny and  disgrace !  these  were  the  very  words  of  the  priest 
in  describing  me,  which  came  so  aptly  to  my  memory,  and 
I  grew  actually  sick  with  shame  as  I  recalled  them.  I  next 
became  angry.  Was  this  conduct  of  Crofton's  delicate  or 
considerate?  Was  it  becoming  in  one  who  had  treated  me 
as  his  friend  thus  abruptly  to  conclude  our  intimacy  by  an 
insult?  Handing  me  such  a  letter  was  saying,  "There's  a 
portrait ;  can  you  say  any  one  it  resembles  ?  '*     How  much 


62  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

more  generous  had  he  said,  "Tell  me  all  about  this  wager  of 
yours  with  Father  Dyke ;  I  want  to  hear  your  account  of  it, 
for  old  Tom  is  not  the  most  veracious  of  mortals,  nor  the 
most  mealy-mouthed  of  commentators.  Just  give  me  your 
version  of  the  incident,  Potts,  and  I  am  satisfied  it  will  be 
the  true  one."  That 's  what  he  might,  that 's  what  he  ought 
to  have  said.  I  can  swear  it  is  what  I,  Potts,  would  have 
done  by  him^  or  by  any  other  stranger  whose  graceful  man- 
ners and  pleasing  qualities  had  won  my  esteem  and  concili- 
ated my  regard.  I  'd  have  said,  "Potts,  I  have  seen  enough 
of  life  to  know  how  unjust  it  is  to  measure  men  by  one  and 
the  same  standard.  The  ardent,  impassioned  nature  can- 
not be  ranked  with  the  cold  and  calculating  spirit.  The 
imaginative  man  has  the  same  necessity  for  the  development 
of  his  creative  faculty  as  the  strongly  muscular  man  of 
bodily  exercise.  He  must  blow  off  the  steam  of  his  inven- 
tion, or  the  boiler  will  not  contain  it.  You  and  Le  Sage 
and  Alexandre  Dumas  are  a  category.  You  are  not  the 
Clerks  of  a  Census  Commission,  or  Masters  in  Equity. 
You  are  the  chartered  libertines  of  fiction.  Shake  out  your 
reefs,  and  go  free,  —  free  as  the  winds  that  waft  you !  " 

To  all  these  reflections  came  the  last  one.  "I  must  be  up 
and  doing,  and  that  speedily !  I  will  recover  Blondel,  if  I 
devote  my  life  to  the  task.  I  will  regain  him,  let  the  cost 
be  what  it  may.  Mounted  upon  that  creature,  I  will  ride  up 
to  the  Rosary;  the  time  shall  be  evening;  a  sun  just  sunk 
behind  the  horizon  shall  have  left  in  the  upper  atmosphere 
a  golden  and  rosy  light,  which  shall  tip  his  mane  with  a 
softened  lustre,  and  shed  over  my  own  features  a  rich 
Titian-like  tint.  '  I. come,'  will  I  say,  '  to  vindicate  the  fair 
fame  of  one  who  once  owned  your  affection.  It  is  Potts, 
the  man  of  impulse,  the  child  of  enthusiasm,  who  now  pre- 
sents himself  before  you.  Poor,  if  you  like  to  call  him  so, 
in  worldly  craft  or  skill,  poor  in  its  possessions,  but  rich, 
boundlessly  rich,  in  the  stores  of  an  ideal  wealth.  Blondel 
and  I  are  the  embodiment  of  this  idea.  These  fancies  you 
have  stigmatized  as  lies  are  but  the  pilot  balloons  by  which 
great  minds  calculate  the  currents  in  that  upper  air  they 
are  about  to  soar  in.  *  " 

And,  last  of  all,  there  was  a  sophistry  that  posesssed  & 


FATHER  DYKE'S  LETTER.  63 

great  charm  for  my  mind,  in  this  wise :  to  enable  a  man, 
humble  as  myself,  to  reach  that  station  in  which  a  career  of 
adventure  should  open  before  him,  some  ground  must  be 
won,  some  position  gained.  That  I  assume  to  be  something 
that  I  am  not,  is  simply  to  say  that  I  trade  upon  credit.  If 
my  future  transactions  be  all  honorable  and  trustworthy, 
—  if  by  a  fiction,  only  known  to  my  own  heart,  I  acquire 
that  eminence  from  which  T  can  distribute  benefits  to  hun- 
dreds, —  who  is  to  stigmatize  me  as  a  fraudulent  trader? 

Is  it  not  a  well-known  fact,  that  many  of  those  now 
acknowledged  as  the  wealthiest  of  men,  might,  at  some  time 
or  other  of  their  lives,  have  been  declared  insolvent  had  the 
real  state  of  their  affairs  been  known  ?  The  world,  however, 
had  given  them  its  confidence,  and  time  did  the  rest.  Let 
the  same  world  be  but  as  generous  towards  ine !  The  day 
will  come,  —  I  say  it  confidently  and  boldly,  —  the  day  will 
come  when  I  can  "show  my  books,"  and  "point  to  my 
balance-sheet."  When  Archimedes  asked  for  a  base  on 
which  to  rest  his  lever,  he  merely  uttered  the  great  truth, 
that  some  one  fixed  point  is  essential  to  the  success  of  a 
motive  power. 

It  is  by  our  use  or  abuse  of  opportunity  we  are  either  good 
or  bad  men.  The  physician  is  not  less  conversant  with 
noxious  drugs  than  the  poisoner;  the  difference  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  one  employs  his  skill  to  alleviate  suffering,  the 
other  to  work  out  evil  and  destruction.  If  I,  therefore,  but 
make  some  feigned  station  in  life  the  groundwork  from  which 
I  can  become  the  benefactor  of  my  fellowmen,  I  shall  be 
good  and  blameless.  My  heart  tells  me  how  well  and  how 
fairly  I  mean  by  the  world :  I  would  succor  the  weak,  con- 
sole the  afflicted,  and  lift  up  the  oppressed ;  and  if  to  carry 
out  grand  and  glorious  conceptions  of  this  kind  all  that  be 
needed  is  a  certain  self-delusion  which  may  extend  its  influ- 
ence to  others,  "Go  in,"  I  say,  "Potts;  be  all  that  your 
fancy  suggests,  — 

Dives,  honoratus,  pulcher,  rex  denique  regum,  — 
Be  rich,  honored  and  fair,  a  prince  or  a  begum,  — 

but,  above  all,  never  distrust  your  destiny,  or  doubt  your 
star." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

IMAGINATION   STIMULATED   BY  BRANDY    AND   WATER. 

So  absorbed  was  I  in  the  reflections  of  which  my  last  chap- 
ter is  the  record,  that  I  utterly  forgot  how  time  was  speed- 
ing, and  perceived  at  last,  to  my  great  surprise,  that  I  had 
strayed  miles  away  from  the  Rosary,  and  that  evening  was 
already  near.  The  spires  and  roofs  of  a  town  were  distant 
about  a  mile  at  a  bend  of  the  river,  and  for  this  I  now  made, 
determined  on  no  account  to  turn  back,  for  how  could  I  ever 
again  face  those  who  had  read  the  terrible  narrative  of  the 
priest's  letter,  and  before  whom  I  could  only  present  myself 
as  a  cheat  and  impostor? 

"No,"  thought  I,  "my  destiny  points  onward,  — and  to 
Blondel;  nothing  shall  turn  me  from  my  path."  Less  than 
an  hour's  walking  brought  me  to  the  town,  of  which  I  had 
but  time  to  learn  the  name,  —  New  Ross.  I  left  it  in  a 
small  steamer  for  Waterford,  a  little  vessel  in  correspond- 
ence with  the  mail  packet  for  Milford,  and  which  I  learned 
would  sail  that  evening  at  nine. 

The  same  night  saw  me  seated  on  the  deck,  bound  for 
England.  On  the  deck,  I  say,  for  I  had  need  to  husband 
my  resources,  and  travel  with  every  imaginable  economy, 
not  only  because  my  resources  were  small  in  themselves, 
but  that,  having  left  all  that  I  possessed  of  clothes  and 
baggage  at  the  Rosary,  I  should  be  obliged  to  acquire  a  com- 
plete outfit  on  reaching  England. 

It  was  a  calm  night,  with  a  starry  sky  and  a  tranquil  sea; 
and,  when  the  cabin  passengers  had  gone  down  to  their 
berths,  the  captain  did  not  oppose  my  stealing  "aft"  to  the 
quarter-deck,  where  I  could  separate  myself  from  the  some- 
what riotous  company  of  the  harvest  laborers  that  thronged 
the  forepart  of  the  vessel.     He  saw,  with  that  instinct  a 


IMAGINATION  STIMULATED.  65 

sailor  is  eminently  gifted  with,  that  I  was  not  of  that  class 
by  which  I  was  surrounded,  and  with  a  ready  courtesy  he 
admitted  me  to  the  privilege  of  isolation. 

"You  are  going  to  enlist,  I  '11  be  bound,"  said  he,  as  he 
passed  me  in  his  short  deck  walk.     ''Ain't  I  right?  " 

"No,"  said  I;  "I'm  going  to  seek  my  fortune." 

"Seek  your  fortune!"  he  repeated,  with  a  slighting  sort 
of  laugh.  "One  used  to  read  about  fellows  doing  that  in 
story  books  when  a  child,  but  it 's  rather  strange  to  hear  of 
it  nowadays." 

"And  may  I  presume  to  ask  why  should  it  be  more  strange 
now  than  formerly?  Is  not  the  world  pretty  much  what  it 
used  to  be?  Is  not  the  drama  of  life  the  same  stock  piece 
our  forefathers  played  ages  ago?  Are  not  the  actors  and 
the  actresses  made  up  of  the  precise  materials  their  ances- 
tors were  ?  Can  yoii  tell  me  of  a  new  sentiment,  a  new  emo- 
tion, or  even  a  new  crime  ?  Why,  therefore,  should  there  be 
a  seeming  incongruity  in  reviving  any  feature  of  the  past  ?  " 

"Just  because  it  won't  do,  my  good  friend,"  said  he, 
bluntly.  "If  the  law  catches  a  fellow  lounging  about  the 
world  in  these  times,  it  takes  him  up  for  a  vagabond." 

"And  what  can  be  finer,  grander,  or  freer  than  a  vaga- 
bond? "  I  cried,  with  enthusiasm.  "Who,  I  would  ask  you, 
sees  life  with  such  philosophy?  Who  views  the  wiles,  the 
snares,  the  petty  conflicts  of  the  world  with  such  a  reflec- 
tive calm  as  his  ?  Caring  little  for  personal  indulgence,  not 
solicitous  for  self -gratification,  he  has  both  the  spirit  and 
the  leisure  for  observation.  Diogenes  was  the  type  of  the 
vagabond,  and  see  how  successive  ages  have  acknowledged 
his  wisdom." 

"If  I  had  lived  in  his  day,  I'd  have  set  him  picking 
oakum,  for  all  that!"  he  replied. 

"And  probably,  too,  would  have  sent  the  '  blind  old  bard 
to  the  crank, '  "  said  I. 

"I'm  not  quite  sure  of  whom  you  are  talking,"  said  he; 
"but  if  he  was  a  good  ballad-singer,  I'd  not  be  hard  on 
him." 

"O!  Menin  aeide  Thea  Peleiadeo  Achilleos!  "  spouted  I 
out,  in  rapture. 

"That  ain't  high  Dutch,"  asked  he,  "is  it?" 

6 


66  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"No,"  said  I,  proudly.  "It  is  ancient  Greek,  —  the  god- 
like tongue  of  an  immortal  race." 

"Immortal  rascals!"  he  broke  in.  "I  was  in  the  fruit 
trade  up  in  the  Levant  there,  and  such  scoundrels  as  these 
Greek  fellows  I  never  met  in  my  life." 

"By  what  and  whom  made  so?"  I  exclaimed  eagerly. 
"Can  you  point  to  a  people  in  the  world  who  have  so  long 
resisted  the  barbarizing  influence  of  a  base  oppression? 
Was  there  ever  a  nation  so  imbued  with  high  civilization 
as  to  be  enabled  for  centuries  of  slavery  to  preserve  the  tra- 
ditions of  its  greatness  ?  Have  we  the  record  of  any  race 
but  this,  who  could  rise  from  the  slough  of  degradation  to 
the  dignity  of  a  people  ?  " 

"You  've  been  a  play-actor,  I  take  it?  "  asked  he,  dryly. 

"No,  sir,  never!"  replied  I,  with  some  indignation. 

"Well,  then,  in  the  Methody  line?  You've  done  a  stroke 
of  preaching,  I  '11  be  sworn." 

"You  would  be  perjured  in  that  case,  sir,"  I  rejoined, 
as  haughtily. 

"At  all  events,  an  auctioneer,"  said  he,  fairly  puzzled  in 
his  speculations. 

"Equally  mistaken  there,"  said  I,  calmly;  "bred  in  the 
midst  of  abundance,  nurtured  in  aflauence,  and  educated 
with  all  the  solicitous  care  that  a  fond  parent  could  be- 
stow—" 

"Gammon !  "  said  he,  bluntly.  "You  are  one  of  the  swell 
mob  in  distress !  " 

"  Is  this  like  distress  ?  "  said  I,  drawing  forth  my  purse  in 
which  were  seventy-five  sovereigns,  and  handing  it  to  him. 
"  Count  over  that,  and  say  how  just  and  how  generous  are 
your  suspicions." 

He  gravely  took  the  purse  from  me,  and,  stooping  down 
to  the  binnacle  light,  counted  over  the  money,  scrutinizing 
carefully  the  pieces  as  he  went. 

"And  who  is  to  say  this  isn't  *  swag'?"  said  he,  as  he 
closed  the  purse. 

"The  easiest  answer  to  that,"  said  I,  "is,  would  it  be 
likely  for  a  thief  to  show  his  booty,  not  merely  to  a  stran- 
ger, but  to  a  stranger  who  suspected  him  ?  '* 

"Well,  that  is  something,  I  confess,"  said  he,  slowly. 


IMAGINATION  STIMULATED.  67 

**It  ought  to  be  more,  —  it  ought  to  be  everything.  If 
distrust  were  not  a  debasing  sentiment,  obstructing  the  im- 
pulses of  generosity,  and  even  invading  the  precincts  of 
justice,  you  would  see  far  more  reason  to  confide  in  than  to 
disbelieve  me." 

"I've  been  done  pretty  often  afore  now,"  he  muttered, 
half  to  himself. 

"  What  a  fallacy  that  is ! "  cried  I,  contemptuously. 
"Was  not  the  pittance  that  some  craft^^  impostor  wrung 
from  your  compassion  well  repaid  to  you  in  the  noble  self- 
consciousness  of  your  generosity?  Did  not  your  venison 
on  that  day  taste  better  when  you  thought  of  his  pork  chop  ? 
Had  not  your  Burgundy  gained  flavor  by  the  memory  of  the 
glass  of  beer  that  was  warming  the  half-chilled  heart  in  his 
breast?  Oh,  the  narrow  mockery  of  fancying  that  we  are 
not  better  by  being  deceived !  " 

"How  long  is  it  since  you  had  your  head  shaved?"  he 
asked  dryly. 

"  I  have  never  been  the  inmate  of  an  asylum  for  lunatics," 
said  I,  divining  and  answering  the  impertinent  insinuation. 

"Well,  I  own  you  are  a  rum  un,"  said  he,  half  musingly. 

"I  accept  even  this  humble  tribute  to  my  originality," 
said  I,  with  a  sort  of  proud  defiance.  "I  am  well  aware 
how  he  must  be  regarded  who  dares  to  assert  his  own 
individuality." 

"I'd  be  very  curious  to  know,"  said  he,  after  a  pause  of 
several  minutes,  "how  a  fellow  of  your  stamp  sets  to  work 
about  gaining  his  livelihood?  What's  his  first  step?  how 
does  he  go  about  it  ?  " 

I  gave  no  other  answer  than  a  smile  of  scornful  meaning. 

"I  meant  nothing  offensive,"  resumed  he,  "but  I  really 
have  a  strong  desire  to  be  enlightened  on  this  point." 

"You  are  doubtless  impressed  with  the  notion,"  said  I, 
boldly,  "that  men  possessed  of  some  distinct  craft  or 
especial  profession  are  alone  needed  by  the  world  of  their 
fellows.  That  one  must  be  doctor  or  lawyer  or  baker  or 
shoemaker,  to  gain  his  living,  as  if  life  had  no  other  wants 
than  to  be  clothed  and  fed  and  physicked  and  litigated. 
As  if  humanity  had  not  its  thousand  emotional  moods,  its 
wayward  impulses,   its  trials  and  temptations,  all  of  them 


68  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

more  needing  guidance,  support,  direction,  and  counsel,  than 
the  sickest  patient  needs  a  physician.  It  is  on  this  world 
that  I  throw  myself ;  I  devote  myself  to  guide  infancy,  to 
console  age,  to  succor  the  orphan,  and  support  the  widow, 
—  morally,  I  mean." 

*'I  begin  to  suspect  you  are  a  most  artful  vagabond," 
said  he  half  angrily. 

''I  have  long  since  reconciled  myself  to  the  thought  of 
an* unjust  appreciation,"  said  I.  ''It  is  the  consolation  dull 
men  accept  when  confronted  with  those  of  original  genius. 
You  can't  help  confessing  that  all  your  distrust  of  me  has 
grown  out  of  the  superiority  of  my  powers,  and  the  humble 
figure  you  have  presented  in  comparison  with  me." 

"Do  you  rank  modesty  amongst  these  same  powers?"  he 
asked  slyly. 

"Modesty  I  reject,"  said  I,  "as  being  a  conventional 
form  of  hypocrisy." 

"Come  down  below,"  said  he,  "and  take  a  glass  of 
brandy  and  water.  It 's  growing  chilly  here,  and  we  shall 
be  the  better  of  something  to  cheer  us." 

Seated  in  his  comfortable  little  cabin,  and  with  a  goodly 
array  of  liquors  before  me  to  choose  from,  I  really  felt  a 
self-confidence  in  the  fact  that,  if  I  were  not  something  out 
of  the  common,  I  could  not  then  be  there.  "There  must  be 
in  my  nature,"  thought  I,  "that  element  which  begets  suc- 
cess, or  I  could  not  always  find  myself  in  situations  so 
palpably  beyond  the  accidents  of  my  condition." 

My  host  was  courtesy  itself;  no  sooner  was  I  his  guest 
than  he  adopted  towards  me  a  manner  of  perfect  politeness. 
No  more  allusions  to  my  precarious  mode  of  life,  never  once 
a  reference  to  my  adventurous  future.  Indeed,  with  an 
almost  artful  exercise  of  good  breeding,  he  turned  the  con- 
versation towards  himself,  and  gave  me  a  sketch  of  his  own 
life. 

It  was  not  in  any  respects  a  remarkable  one;  though  it 
had  its  share  of  those  mishaps  and  misfortunes  which  every 
sailor  must  have  confronted.  He  was  wrecked  in  the 
Pacific,  and  robbed  in  the  Havannah;  had  his  crew  desert 
him  at  San  Francisco,  and  was  boarded  by  Riff  pirates,  and 
Bold  in  Barbary  just  as  every  other  blue  jacket  used  to  be; 


IMAGINATION   STIMULATED.  69 

and  I  listened  to  the  story,  only  marvelling  what  a  dreary 
sameness  pervades  all  these  narratives.  Why,  for  one  trait 
of  the  truthful  to  prove  his  tale,  I  could  have  invented  fifty. 
There  were  no  little  touches  of  sentiment  or  feeling,  no 
relieving  lights  of  human  emotion,  in  his  story.  I  never 
felt,  as  I  listened,  any  wish  that  he  should  be  saved  from 
shipwreck,  baffle  his  persecutors,  or  escape  his  captors ;  and 
I  thought  to  myself,  ''This  fellow  has  certainly  got  no  nar- 
rative gusto."  Now  for  my  turn:  we  had  each  of  us  par- 
taken freely  of  the  good  liquor  before  us.  The  Captain  in 
his  quality  of  talker,  I  in  my  capacity  of  listener,  had  filled 
and  refilled  several  times.  There  was  not  anything  like 
inebriety,  but  there  was  that  amount  of  exultation,  a  stage 
higher  than  mere  excitement,  which  prompts  men,  at  least 
men  of  temperaments  like  mine,  not  to  suffer  themselves  to 
occupy  rear  rank  positions,  but  at  any  cost  to  become  fore- 
ground and  prominent  figures. 

"You  have  heard  of  the  M'Gillicuddys,  I  suppose?" 
asked  I.  He  nodded,  and  I  went  on.  "You  see,  then,  at 
this  moment  before  you,  the  last  of  the  race.  I  mean,  of 
course,  of  the  elder  branch,  for  there  are  swarms  of  the 
others,  well  to  do  and  prosperous  also,  and  with  fine  estated 
properties.  I  '11  not  weary  you  with  family  history.  I  '11 
not  refer  to  that  remote  time  when  my  ancestors  wore  the 
crown,  and  ruled  the  fair  kingdom  of  Kerry.  In  the  Annals 
of  the  Four  Masters,  and  also  in  the  Chronicles  of  Theal- 
bogh  O'Faudlemh,  you  '11  find  a  detailed  account  of  our 
house.  I  '11  simply  narrate  for  you  the  immediate  incident 
which  has  made  me  what  you  see  me,  —  an  outcast  and  a 
beggar. 

"My  father  was  the  tried  and  trusted  friend  of  that  noble- 
hearted  but  mistaken  man.  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald.  The 
famous  attempt  of  the  year  'eight  was  concerted  between 
them ;  and  all  the  causes  of  its  failure,  secret  as  they  are  and 
forever  must  be,  are  known  to  him  who  now  addresses  you. 
I  dare  not  trust  myself  to  talk  of  these  times  or  things,  lest 
I  should  by  accident  let  drop  what  might  prove  strictly 
confidential.  I  will  but  recount  one  incident,  and  that  a 
personal  one,  of  the  period.  On  the  night  of  Lord  Edward's 
capture,  my  father,  who  had  invited  a  friend  —  deep  himself 


70  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

in  the  conspiracy  —  to  dine  with  him,  met  his  guest  on  the 
steps  of  his  hall  door.  Mr.  Hammond  —  this  was  his  name 
—  was  pale  and  horror-struck,  and  could  scarcely  speak,  as 
my  father  shook  his  hand.  *  Do  you  know  what  has  hap- 
pened, Mac?  *  said  he  to  my  father.  '  Lord  Edward  is 
taken.  Major  Sirr  and  his  party  have  tracked  him  to  his 
hiding-place ;  they  have  got  hold  of  all  our  papers,  and  we 
are  lost.  By  this  time  to-morrow  every  man  of  us  will  be 
within  the  walls  of  Newgate.' 

''  '  Don't  look  so  gloomily,  Tom,'  said  my  father.  *  Lord 
Edward  will  escape  them  yet;  he  's  not  a  bird  to  be  snared 
so  easily;  and,  after  all,  we  shall  find  means  to  slip  our 
cables  too.  Come  in,  and  enjoy  your  sirloin  and  a  good 
glass  of  port,  and  you  '11  view  the  world  more  pleasantly. ' 
With  a  little  encouragement  of  this  sort  he  cheered  him  up, 
and  the  dinner  passed  off  agreeably  enough;  but  still  my 
father  could  see  that  his  friend  was  by  no  means  at  his  ease, 
and  at  every  time  the  door  opened  he  would  start  with  a 
degree  of  surprise  that  augured  anxiety  of  some  coming 
event.  From  these  and  other  signs  of  uneasiness  in  his 
manner,  my  father  drew  his  own  conclusions,  and  with  a 
quick  intelligence  of  look  communicated  his  suspicions  to 
my  mother,  who  was  herself  a  keen  and  shrewd  observer. 

"  '  Do  you  think,  Matty,'  said  he,  as  they  sat  over  their 
wine,  '  that  I  could  find  a  bottle  of  the  old  green  seal  if  I 
was  to  look  for  it  in  the  cellar?  It  has  been  upwards  of 
forty  years  there,  and  I  never  touch  it  save  on  especial 
occasions ;  but  an  old  friend  like  Hammond  deserves  such  a 
treat. ' 

"My  father  fancied  that  Hammond  grew  paler  as  he  thus 
alluded  to  their  old  friendship,  and  he  gave  my  mother  a 
rapid  glance  of  his  sharp  eye,  and,  taking  the  cellar  key,  he 
left  the  room.  Immediately  outside  the  door,  he  hastened 
to  the  stable,  and  saddled  and  bridled  a  horse,  and,  slipping 
quietly  out,  he  rode  for  the  sea-coast,  near  the  Skerries.  It 
was  sixteen  miles  from  Dublin,  but  he  did  the  distance 
within  the  hour.  And  well  was  it  for  him  that  he  employed 
such  speed!  With  a  liberal  offer  of  money  and  the  gold 
watch  he  wore,  he  secured  a  small  fishing-smack  to  convey 
him  over  to  France,  for  which  he  sailed   immediately.     I 


IMAGINATION  STIMULATED.  71 

have  said  it  was  well  that  he  employed  such  speed ;  for,  after 
waiting  with  suppressed  impatience  for  my  father's  return 
from  the  cellar,  Hammond  expressed  to  my  mother  his  fears 
lest  my  father  might  have  been  taken  ill.  She  tried  to  quiet 
his  apprehensions,  but  the  very  calmness  of  her  manner 
served  only  to  increase  them.  '  I  can  bear  this  no  longer, ' 
cried  he,  at  last,  rising,  in  much  excitement,  from  his  chair ; 
*  I  must  see  what  has  become  of  him !'  At  the  same  moment 
the  door  was  suddenly  flung  open,  and  an  officer  of  police, 
in  full  uniform,  presented  himself.  '  He  has  got  away,  sir,' 
said  he,  addressing  Hammond;  '  the  stable-door  is  open, 
and  one  of  the  horses  missing.' 

"  My  mother,  from  whom  I  heard  the  story,  had  only  time 
to  utter  a  '  Thank  God ! '  before  she  fainted.  On  recovering 
her  senses,  she  found  herself  alone  in  the  room.  The 
traitor  Hammond  and  the  police  had  left  her  without  even 
calling  the  servants  to  her  aid." 

"And  your  father, — what  became  of  him?"  asked  the 
skipper,  eagerly. 

''He  arrived  in  Paris  in  sorry  plight  enough;  but,  fortu- 
nately, Clarke,  whose  influence  with  the  Emperor  was  un- 
bounded, was  a  distant  connection  of  our  family.  By  his 
intervention  my  father  obtained  an  interview  with  his 
Majesty,  who  was  greatly  struck  by  the  adventurous  spirit 
and  daring  character  of  the  man ;  not  the  less  so  because  he 
had  the  courage  to  disabuse  the  Emperor  of  many  notions 
and  impressions  he  had  conceived  about  the  readiness  of 
Ireland  to  accept  French  assistance. 

"Though  my  father  would  much  have  preferred  taking 
service  in  the  army,  the  Emperor,  who  had  strong  prejudices 
against  men  becoming  soldiers  who  had  not  served  in  every 
grade  from  the  ranks  upwards,  opposed  this  intention,  and 
employed  him  in  a  civil  capacity.  In  fact,  to  his  manage- 
ment were  intrusted  some  of  the  most  delicate  and  difficult 
secret  negotiations;  and  he  gained  a  high  name  for  acute- 
ness  and  honorable  dealing.  In  recognition  of  his  services, 
his  name  was  inscribed  in  the  Grand  Livre  for  a  consider- 
able pension ;  but  at  the  fall  of  the  dynasty,  this,  with  hun- 
dreds of  others  equally  meritorious,  was  annulled;  and  my 
father,   worn  out  with  age  and   disappointment   together, 


72  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

sank  at  last,  and  died  at  Dinant,  where  my  mother  was 
buried  but  a  few  years  previously.  Meanwhile  he  was 
tried  and  found  guilty  of  high  treason  in  Ireland,  and  all  his 
lands  and  other  property  forfeited  to  the  Crown.  My  pres- 
ent journey  was  simply  a  pilgrimage  to  see  the  old  posses- 
sions that  once  belonged  to  our  race.  It  was  my  father's  last 
wish  that  I  should  visit  the  ancient  home  of  our  family, 
and  stand  upon  the  hills  that  once  acknowledged  us  as  their 
ruler.  He  never  desired  that  I  should  remain  a  French  sub- 
ject; a  lingering  love  for  his  own  country  mingled  in  his 
heart  with  a  certain  resentment  towards  France,  who  had 
certainly  treated  him  with  ingratitude ;  and  almost  his  last 
words  to  me  were,  '  Distrust  the  Gaul.'  When  I  told  you 
awhile  back  that  I  was  nurtured  in  affluence,  it  was  so  to  all 
appearance;  for  my  father  had  spent  every  shilling  of  his 
capital  on  my  education,  and  I  was  under  the  firm  convic- 
tion that  I  was  born  to  a  very  great  fortune.  You  may 
judge  the  terrible  revulsion  of  my  feelings  when  I  learned 
that  I  had  to  face  the  world  almost,  if  not  actually,  a 
beggar. 

"  I  could  easily  have  attached  myself  as  a  hanger-on  of 
some  of  my  well-to-do  relations.  Indeed,  I  will  say  for 
them,  that  they  showed  the  kindest  disposition  to  befriend 
me ;  but  the  position  of  a  dependant  would  have  destroyed 
every  chance  of  happiness  for  me,  and  so  I  resolved  that  I 
would  fearlessly  throw  myself  upon  the  broad  ocean  of  life, 
and  trust  that  some  sea  current  or  favoring  wind  would 
bear  me  at  last  into  a  harbor  of  safety." 

*'What  can  you  do?"  asked  the  skipper,  curtly. 

"Everything,  and  nothing!  I  have,  so  to  say,  the  *  sen- 
timent '  of  all  things  in  my  heart,  but  am  not  capable  of 
executing  one  of  them.  With  the  most  correct  ear,  I  know 
not  a  note  of  music ;  and  though  I  could  not  cook  you  a 
chop,  I  have  the  most  excellent  appreciation  of  a  well- 
dressed  dinner." 

"Well,"  said  he,  laughing,  "I  must  confess  I  don't  sus- 
pect these  to  be  exactly  the  sort  of  gifts  to  benefit  your 
fellow-man." 

**And  yet,"  said  I,  "it  is  exactly  to  individuals  of  this 
stamp  that  the  world  accords  its   prizes.     The   impresario- 


IMAGINATION   STIMULATED.  73 

that  provides  the  opera  could  not  sing  nor  dance.  The 
general  who  directs  the  campaign  might  be  sorely  puzzled 
how  to  clean  his  musket  or  pipeclay  his  belt.  The  great 
minister  who  imposes  a  tax  might  be  totally  unequal  to 
the  duty  of  applying  its  provisions.  Ask  him  to  gauge  a 
hogshead  of  spirits,  for  instance.  My  position  is  like 
theirs,  I  tell  you,  once  more,  the  world  wants  men  of 
wide  conceptions  and  far-ranging  ideas,  —  men  who  look 
to  great  results  and  grand  combinations." 

* '  But,  to  be  practical,  how  do  you  mean  to  breakfast 
to-morrow  morning  ?  " 

"At  a  moderate  cost,  but  comfortably:  tea,  rolls,  two 
eggs,  and  a  rumpsteak  with  fried  potatoes." 

"  What 's  your  name?  "  said  he,  taking  out  his  note-book. 
"  I  mustn't  forget  you  when  I  hear  of  you  next." 

**  For  the  present,  I  call  myself  Potts,  — Mr.  Potts,  if  you 
please." 

"  Write  it  here  yourself,"  said  he,  handing  me  the  pencil. 
And  I  wrote  in  a  bold,  vigorous  hand,  "Algernon  Sydney 
Potts,"  with  the  date. 

"  Preserve  that  autograph,  Captain,"  said  I ;  "  it  is  in  no 
spirit  of  vanity  I  say  it,  but  the  day  will  come  you  '11  refuse 
a  ten-pound  note  for  it." 

"  Well,  I'd  take  a  trifle  less  just  now,"  said  he,  smiling. 

He  sat  for  some  time  gravely  contemplating  the  writing,. 
and  at  length,  in  a  sort  of  half  soliloquy,  said,  "  Bob  would 
like  him,  —  he  would  suit  Bob."  Then,  lifting  his  head,  he 
addressed  me :  "I  have  a  brother  in  command  of  one  of  the 
P.  and  O.  steamers,  —  just  the  fellow  for  you.  He  has  got 
ideas  pretty  much  like  your  own  about  success  in  life,  and 
won't  be  persuaded  that  he  isn't  the  first  seaman  in  the 
English  navy ;  or  that  he  has  n't  a  plan  to  send  Cher- 
bourg and  its  breakwater  sky-high,  at  twenty-four  hours' 
warning." 

"  An  enthusiast,  —  a  visionary,  I  have  no  doubt,"  said  I, 
contemptuously. 

"  Well,  I  think  you  might  be  more  merciful  in  your  judg- 
ment of  a  man  of  your  own  stamp,"  retorted  he,  laughing. 
"  At  all  events,  it  would  be  as  good  as  a  play  to  see  you  to- 
gether.    If  you  should  chance  to  be  at  Malta  or  Marseilles, 


74  A   DAY'S   RIDE. 

when  the  'Clarence'  touches  there,  just  ask  for  Captain 
Rogers  ;  tell  him  you  know  me,  that  will  be  enough." 

"  Why  not  give  me  a  line  of  introduction  to  him?  "  said  I, 
with  an  easy  indifference.  ''  These  things  serve  to  clear  away 
the  awkwardness  of  a  self-presentation." 

''  I  don't  care  if  I  do,"  said  he,  taking  a  sheet  of  paper, 
and  beginning  "  Dear  Bob,"  —  after  which  he  paused  and  de- 
liberated, muttering  the  words  ''Dear  Bob"  three  or  four 
times  over  below  his  breath. 

"  '  Dear  Bob,' "  said  I,  aloud,  in  the  tone  of  one  dictating 
to  an  amanuensis,  —  "  '  This  brief  note  will  be  handed  to  you 
by  a  very  valued  friend  of  mine,  Algernon  Sydney  Potts,  a 
man  so  completely  after  your  own  heart  that  I  feel  a  down- 
right satisfaction  in  bringing  you  together.' " 

"Well,  that  ain't  so  bad,"  said  he,  as  he  uttered  the 
last  words  which  fell  from  his  pen,  —  "  '  in  bringing  you 
together.' " 

"  Go  on,"  said  I,  dictatorially,  and  continued  :  "  '  Thrown 
by  a  mere  accident  myself  into  his  society,  I  was  so  struck 
by  his  attainments,  the  originality  of  his  views,  and  the  wide 
extent  of  his  knowledge  of  life  —  *     Have  you  that  down?  " 

"No,"  said  he,  in  some  confusion;  "I  am  only  at 
'  entertainments.' " 

"  I  said  '  attainments,'  sir,"  said  I,  rebukingly,  and  then 
repeating  the  passage  word  for  word,  till  he  had  written  it,  — 
"  'that  I  conceived  for  him  a  regard  and  an  esteem  rarely 
accorded  to  others  than  our  oldest  friends.'  One  word  more  : 
'  Potts,  from  certain  circumstances,  which  I  cannot  here  enter 
upon,  may  appear  to  you  in  some  temporary  inconvenience  as 
regards  money  — '  " 

Here  the  Captain  stopped,  and  gave  me  a  most  significant 
look :  it  was  at  once  an  appreciation  and  an  expression  of 
drollery. 

"  Go  on,"  said  I,  dryly.  "  '  If  so,'"  resumed  I,  "  '  be 
guardedly  cautious  neither  to  notice  his  embarrassment 
nor  allude  to  it;  above  all,  take  especial  care  that  you 
make  no  offer  to  remove  the  inconvenience,  for  he  is  one 
of  those  whose  sensibilities  are  so  fine,  and  whose  senti- 
ments so  fastidious,  that  he  could  never  recover,  in  his  own 
€Steem,  the  dignity  compromised  by  such  an  incident.' " 


IMAGINATION  STIMULATED.  75 

*'  Very  neatly  turned,"  said  he,  as  he  re-read  the  passage. 
"I  think  that's  quite  enough." 

*'  Ample.  You  have  nothing  more  to  do  than  sign  your 
name  to  it." 

He  did  this,  with  a  verificatory  flourish  at  foot,  folded  and 
sealed  the  letter,  and  handed  it  to  me,  saying,  — 

"If  it  weren't  for  the  handwriting.  Bob  would  never  be- 
lieve all  that  fine  stuff  came  from  me ;  but  you  '11  tell  him  it 
was  after  three  glasses  of  brandy-and-water  that  I  dashed  it 
off,  —  that  will  explain  everything." 

I  promised  faithfully  to  make  the  required  explanation, 
and  then  proceeded  to  make  some  inquiries  about  this 
brother  Bob,  whose  nature  was  in  such  a  close  affinity  with 
my  own.  I  could  learn,  however,  but  little  beyond  the 
muttered  acknowledgment  that  Bob  was  a  ''queer  un," 
and  that  there  was  never  his  equal  for  ''  falling  upon  good 
luck,  and  spending  it  after,"  a  description  which,  when  ap- 
plied to  my  own  conscience,  told  an  amount  of  truth  that 
was  actually  painful. 

''  There  's  no  saying,"  said  I,  as  I  pocketed  the  letter, 
*•'•  if  this  epistle  should  ever  reach  your  brother's  hand,  my 
course  in  life  is  too  wayward  and  uncertain  for  me  to  say 
in  what  corner  of  the  earth  fate  may  find  me ;  but  if  we 
are  to  meet,  you  shall  hear  of  it.  Rogers,"  —  I  said  this  in 
all  the  easy  familiarity  which  brandy  inspired, —  "I'll  tell 
your  brother  of  the  warm  and  generous  hospitality  you  ex- 
tended to  me,  at  a  time  that,  to  all  seeming,  I  needed  such 
attentions,  —  at  a  time,  I  say,  when  none  but  myself  could 
know  how  independently  I  stood  as  regarded  means ;  and  of 
one  thing  be  assured,  Rogers,  he  whose  caprice  it  now  is  to 
call  himself  Potts  is  your  friend,  your  fast  friend,  for  life." 

He  wrung  my  hand  cordially,  —  perhaps  it  was  the  easiest 
way  for  an  honest  sailor,  as  he  was,  to  acknowledge  the 
patronizing  tone  of  my  speech,  —  but  I  could  plainly  see 
that  he  was  sorely  puzzled  by  the  situation,  and  possibly 
very  well  pleased  that  there  was  no  third  party  to  be  a  spec- 
tator of  it. 

"  Throw  yourself  there  on  that  sofa,"  said  he,  "  and  take 
a  sleep."  And  with  that  piece  of  counsel  he  left  me,  and 
went  up  on  deck. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

MT   INTEREST   IN   A    LADY    FELLOW-TRAVELLER. 

Next  morniDgs  are  terrible  things,  whether  one  awakes  to 
the  thought  of  some  awful  run  of  ill-luck  at  play,  or  with  the 
racking  headache  of  new  port  or  a  very  ''  fruity  '*  Burgundy. 
They  are  dreadful,  too,  when  they  bring  memories  —  vague 
and  indistinct,  perhaps  —  of  some  serious  altercations,  pas- 
sionate words  exchanged,  and  expressions  of  defiance  recip- 
rocated ;  but,  as  a  measure  of  self-reproach  and  humiliation, 
I  know  not  any  distress  can  compare  with  the  sensation  of 
awaking  to  the  consciousness  that  our  cups  have  so  minis- 
tered to  imagination  that  we  have  given  a  mythical  narra- 
tive of  ourself  and  our  belongings,  and  have  built  up  a  card 
edifice  of  greatness  that  must  tumble  with  the  first  touch  of 
truth. 

It  was  a  sincere  satisfaction  to  me  that  I  saw  nothing  of 
the  skipper  on  that  "  next  morning."  He  was  so  occupied 
with  all  the  details  of  getting  into  port,  that  I  escaped  his- 
notice,  and  contrived  to  land  unremarked.  Little  scraps  of 
my  last  night's  biography  would  obtrude  themselves  upon 
me,  mixed  up  strangely  with  incidents  of  that  same  skipper's 
life,  so  that  I  was  actually  puzzled  at  moments  to  remember 
whether  he  was  not  the  descendant  of  the  famous  rebel 
friend  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  and  /  it  was  who  was  sold 
in  the  public  square  at  Tunis. 

These  dissolving  views  of  an  evening  before  are  very 
difficult  problems,  —  not  to  you^  most  valued  reader,  whose 
conscience  is  not  burglariously  assaulted  by  a  riotous  imagi- 
nation, but  to  the  poor  weak  Potts-like  organizations,  the 
men  who  never  enjoy  a  real  sensation,  or  taste  a  real  pleas- 
ure, save  on  the  hypothesis  of  a  mock  situation. 

I  sat  at  my  breakfast  in  the  ' '  Goat "  meditating  these 
things.     The  grand  problem  to  resolve  was  this :  Is  it  better 


MY  INTEREST  IN  A  LADY  FELLOW-TRAVELLER.        77 

to  live  a  life  of  dull  incidents  and  commonplace  events  in 
one's  own  actual  sphere,  or,  creating,  by  force  of  imagina- 
tion, an  ideal  status,  to  soar  into  a  region  of  higher  concep- 
tions and  more  pictorial  situations?  What  could  existence 
in  the  first  case  offer  me?  A  wearisome  beaten  path,  with 
nothing  to  interest,  nothing  to  stimulate  me.  On  the  other 
side  lay  glorious  regions  of  lovely  scenery,  peopled  with 
figures  the  most  graceful  and  attractive.  I  was  at  once  the 
associate  of  the  wise,  the  witty,  and  the  agreeable,  with 
wealth  at  my  command,  and  great  prizes  within  my  reach. 
Illusions  all !  to  be  sure ;  but  what  are  not  illusions,  —  if  by 
that  word  you  take  mere  account  of  permanence  ?  What  is 
it  in  this  world  that  we  love  to  believe  real  is  not  illusionary, 
—  the  question  of  duration  being  the  only  difference?  Is 
not  beauty  perishable?  Is  not  wit  soon  exhausted?  What 
becomes  of  the  proudest  physical  strength  after  middle  life 
is  reached  ?  What  Of  eloquence  when  the  voice  fails  or  loses 
its  facility  of  inflection? 

All  these  considerations,  however  convincing  to  myself, 
were  not  equally  satisfactory  as  regarded  others ;  and  so  I 
sat  down  to  write  a  letter  to  Crofton,  explaining  the  reasons 
of  my  sudden  departure,  and  enclosing  him  Father  Dyke's 
epistle,  which  I  had  carried  away  with  me.  I  began  this 
letter  with  the  most  firm  resolve  to  be  truthful  and  accurate. 
I  wrote  down,  not  only  the  date,  but  the  day.  "  '  Goat,* 
Milford,"  followed,  and  then,  "  My  dear  Crofton,  —  It 
would  ill  become  one  who  has  partaken  of  your  generous 
hospitality,  and  who,  from  an  unknown  stranger,  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  privilege  of  your  intimacy,  to  quit  the  roof 
beneath  which  the  happiest  hours  of  his  life  were  passed 
without  expressing  the  deep  shame  and  sorrow  such  a  step 
has  cost  hnn,  while  he  bespeaks  your  indulgence  to  hear  the 
reason."  This  was  my  first  sentence,  and  it  gave  me  un- 
common trouble.  I  desired  to  be  dignified,  yet  grateful, 
proud  in  my  humility,  grieved  over  an  abrupt  departure,  but 
sustained  by  a  manly  confidence  in  the  strength  of  my  own 
motives.  If  I  read  it  over  once,  I  read  it  twenty  times ; 
now  deeming  it  too  diffuse,  now  fearing  lest  I  had  com- 
pressed my  meaning  too  narrowly.  Might  it  not  be  better 
to  open  thus:  '*  Strike,  but  hear  me,  dear  Crofton,  or,  be- 


78  A  DAY'S  RroE. 

fore  condemning  the  unhappy  creature  whose  abject  cry  for 
mercy  may  seem  but  to  increase  the  presumption  of  his 
guilt,  and  in  whose  faltering  accents  may  appear  the  signs  of 
a  stricken  conscience,  read  over,  dear  friend,  the  entire  of 
this  letter,  weigh  well  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  him  who 
wrote  it,  and  say,  is  he  not  rather  a  subject  for  pity  than 
rebuke?  Is  not  this  more  a  case  for  a  tearful  forgiveness 
than  for  chastisement  and  reproach?" 

Like  most  men  who  have  little  habit  of  composition,  my 
difficulties  increased  with  every  new  attempt,  and  I  became 
bewildered  and  puzzled  what  to  choose.  It  was  vitally  im- 
portant that  the  first  lines  of  my  letter  should  secure  the 
favorable  opinion  of  the  reader ;  by  one  unhappy  word,  one 
ill-selected  expression,  a  whole  case  might  be  prejudiced.  I 
imagined  Crofton  angrily  throwing  the  epistle  from  him 
with  an  impatient  ''  Stuff  and  nonsense !  a  practised  hum- 
bugger !  "  or,  worse  again,  calling  out,  *' Listen  to  this, 
Mary.  Is  not  Master  Potts  a  cool  hand?  Is  not  this 
brazening  it  out  with  a  vengeance?"  Such  a  thought  was 
agony  to  me ;  the  very  essence  of  my  theory  about  life  was 
to  secure  the  esteem  and  regard  of  others.  I  yearned  after 
the  good  opinion  of  my  fellow-men,  and  there  was  no  amount 
of  falsehood  I  would  not  incur  to  obtain  it.  No,  come  what 
would  of  it,  the  Croftons  must  not  think  ill  of  me.  They 
must  not  only  believe  me  guiltless  of  ingratitude,  but  some 
one  whose  gratitude  was  worth  having.  It  will  elevate  them 
in  their  own  esteem  if  they  suppose  that  the  pebble  they 
picked  up  in  the  highway  turned  out  to  be  a  ruby.  It  will 
open  their  hearts  to  fresh  impulses  of  generosity ;  they  will 
not  say  to  each  other,  "  Let  us  be  more  careful  another 
time ;  let  us  be  guarded  against  showing  attention  to  mere 
strangers ;  remember  how  we  were  taken  in  by  that  fellow 
Potts;  what  a  specious  rascal  he  was,  —  how  plausible,  how 
insinuating!"  but  rather,  "We  can  afford  to  be  confiding, 
our  experiences  have  taught  us  trustfulness.  Poor  Potts  i» 
a  lesson  that  may  inspire  a  hopeful  belief  in  others."  How 
little  benefit  can  any  one  in  his  own  individual  capacity  con- 
fer upon  the  world,  but  what  a  large  measure  of  good  may 
be  distributed  by  the  way  he  influences  others.  Thus,  for 
instance,  by  one  well-sustained  delusion  of  mine,  I  inspire  a 


MY  INTEREST  IN  A  LADY  FELLOW-TRAVELLER.        79 

fund  of  virtues  which,  in  my  merely  truthful  character,  I 
could  never  pretend  to  originate.  ''  Yes,"  thought  I,  ''the 
Crof  tons  shall  continue  to  esteem  me ;  Potts  shall  be  a 
beacon  to  guide,  not  a  sunken  rock  to  wreck  them." 

Thus  resolving,  I  sat  down  to  inform  them  that  on  my 
return  from  a  stroll,  I  was  met  by  a  man  bearing  a  telegram, 
informing  me  of  the  dying  condition  of  my  father's  only 
brother,  my  sole  relative  on  earth ;  that,  yielding  only  to  the 
impulse  of  my  affection,  and  not  thinking  of  preparation,  I 
started  on  board  of  a  steamer  for  Waterford,  and  thence  for 
Milford,  on  my  way  to  Brighton.  I  vaguely  hinted  at  great 
expectations,  and  so  on,  and  then,  approaching  the  difficult 
problem  of  Father  Dyke's  letter,  I  said,  ''I  enclose  you  the 
priest's  letter,  which  amused  me  much.  With  all  his  shrewd- 
ness, the  worthy  churchman  never  suspected  how  completely 
my  friend  Keldrum  and  myself  had  humbugged  him,  nor  did 
he  discover  that  our  little  dinner  and  the  episode  that  fol- 
lowed it  were  the  subjects  of  a  wager  between  ourselves. 
His  marvellous  cunning  was  thus  for  once  at  fault,  as  I  shall 
explain  to  you  more  fully  when  we  meet,  and  prove  to  you 
that,  upon  this  occasion  at  least,  he  was  not  deceiver,  but 
dupe !  "  -I  begged  to  have  a  line  from  him  to  the  "  Crown 
Hotel,  Brighton,"  and  concluded. 

With  this  act,  I  felt  I  had  done  with  the  past,  and  now 
addressed  myself  to  the  future.  I  purchased  a  few  cheap 
necessaries  for  the  road,  as  few  and  as  cheap  as  was  well 
possible.  I  said  to  myself.  Fortune  shall  lift  you  from  the 
very  dust  of  the  high-road.  Potts;  not  one  advantageous 
adjunct  shall  aid  your  elevation ! 

The  train  by  which  I  was  to  leave  did  not  start  till  noon, 
and  to  while  away  time  I  took  up  a  number  of  the  "  Times," 
which  the  "Goat"  appeared  to  receive  at  third  or  fourth 
hand.  My  eye  fell  upon  that  memorable  second  column,  in 
which  I  read  the  following  :  — 

"  Left  his  home  in  Dublin  on  the  8th  ult.,  and  not  since  been  heard 
of,  a  young  gentleman,  aged  about  twenty-two  years,  five  feet  nine 
and  a  quarter  in  height,  slightly  formed,  and  rather  stooped  in  the 
shoulders  ;  features  pale  and  melancholy ;  eyes  grayish,  inclining  to 
hazel ;  hair  light  brown,  and  worn  long  behind.  He  had  on  at  his 
departure  —  " 


:80  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  turned  impatiently  to  the  foot  of  the  advertisement,  and 
found  that  to  any  one  giving  such  information  as  might  lead 
to  his  discovery  was  promised  a  liberal  reward,  on  applica- 
tion to  Messrs.  Potts  and  Co.,  compounding  chemists  and 
apothecaries,  Mary's  Abbey.  I  actually  grew  sick  with 
anger  as  I  read  this.  To  what  end  was  it  that  I  built  up  a 
glorious  edifice  of  imaginative  architecture,  if  by  one  miser- 
able touch  of  coarse  fact  it  would  crumble  into  clay?  To 
what  purpose  did  I  intrigue  with  Fortune  to  grant  me  a 
special  destiny,  if  I  were  thus  to  be  classed  with  runaway 
traders  or  strayed  terriers?  I  believe  in  my  heart  I  could 
better  have  borne  all  the  terrors  of  a  charge  of  felony  than 
the  lowering,  debasing,  humiliating  condition  of  being  adver- 
tised for  on  a  reward. 

I  had  long  since  determined  to  be  free  as  regarded  the 
ties  of  country.  I  now  resolved  to  be  equally  so  with  re- 
spect to  those  of  family.  I  will  be  Potts  no  longer.  I  will 
call  myself  for  the  future  —  let  me  see  —  what  shall  it  be, 
that  will  not  involve  a  continued  exercise  of  memory,  and  the 
troublesome  task  of  unmarking  my  linen?  I  was  forgetting 
in  this  that  I  had  none,  all  my  wearables  being  left  behind 
at  the  Rosary.  Something  with  an  initial  P  was  requisite ; 
and  after  much  canvassing,  I  fixed  on  Pottinger.  If  by  an 
unhappy  chance  I  should  meet  one  who  remembered  me  as 
Potts,  I  reserved  the  right  of  mildly  correcting  him  by  say- 
ing, *' Pottinger,  Pottinger!  the  name  Potts  was  given  me 
when  at  Eton  for  shortness."  They  tell  us  that  amongst 
the  days  of  our  exultation  in  life,  few  can  compare  with  that 
in  which  we  exchange  a  jacket  for  a  tailed  coat.  The  spring 
from  the  tadpole  to  the  full-grown  frog,  the  emancipation 
from  boyhood  into  adolescence,  is  certainly  very  fascinating. 
Let  me  assure  my  reader  that  the  bound  from  a  monos^^Uabic 
name  to  a  high-sounding  epithet  of  three  syllables  is  almost 
as  enchanting  as  this  assumption  of  the  toga  virilis.  I  had 
often  felt  the  terrible  brevity  of  Potts ;  I  had  shrunk  from 
answering  the  question,  "  What  name,  sir?"  from  the  inde- 
scribable shame  of  saying  "  Potts  ;  "  but  Pottinger  could  be 
uttered  slowly  and  with  dignity.  One  could  repose  on  the 
initial  syllable,  as  if  to  say,  "  Mark  well  what  I  am  saying; 
this  is  a  name  to  be  remembered."     With  that,  there  must 


MY  INTEREST  IN  A  LADY  FELLOW-TRAVELLER.        81 

have  been  great  and  distinguished  Pottingers,  rich  men, 
men  of  influence  and  acres;  from  these  I  could  at  leisure 
select  a  parentage. 

"Do  you  go  by  the  twelve-fifteen  train,  sir?"  asked  the 
waiter,  breaking  in  upon  these  meditations.  "  You  have  no 
time  to  lose,  sir." 

With  a  start,  I  saw  it  was  already  past  twelve ;  so  I  paid 
my  bill  with  all  speed,  and,  taking  my  knapsack  in  my  hand, 
hurried  away  to  the  train.  There  was  considerable  confusion 
as  I  arrived,  a  crush  of  cabs,  watermen,  and  porters  blocked 
the  way,  and  the  two  currents  of  an  arriving  and  departing 
train  struggled  against  and  confronted  each  other.  Amongst 
those  who,  like  myself,  were  bent  on  entering  the  station- 
house,  was  a  young  lady  in  deep  mourning,  whose  frail 
proportions  and  delicate  figure  gave  no  prospect  of  resisting 
the  shock  and  conflict  before  her.  Seeing  her  so  destitute 
of  all  protection,  I  espoused  her  cause,  and  after  a  valorous 
effort  and  much  buffeting,  I  fought  her  way  for  her  to  the 
ticket- window,  but  only  in  time  to  hear  the  odious  crash  of  a 
great  bell,  the  bang  of  a  glass  door,  and  the  cry  of  a  police- 
man on  duty,  "No  more  tickets,  gentlemen;  the  train  is 
starting." 

"  Oh !  what  shall  I  do?  "  cried  she,  in  an  accent  of  intense 
agony,  inadvertently  addressing  the  words  to  myself :  "  what 
shall  I  do?" 

"There's  another  train  to  start  at  three-forty,"  said  I, 
consolingly.  "  I  hope  that  waiting  will  be  no  inconvenience 
to  you.  It  is  a  slow  one,  to  be  sure,  stops  everywhere,  and 
only  arrives  in  town  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning." 

I  heard  her  sob,  —  I  distinctly  heard  her  sob  behind  her 
thick  black  veil  as  I  said  this;  and  to  offer  what  amount 
of  comfort  I  could,  I  added,  "  I,  too,  am  disappointed,  and 
obliged  to  await  the  next  departure ;  and  if  I  can  be  of  the 
least  service  in  any  way  —  " 

"Oh,  no,  sir!  I  am  very  grateful  to  you,  but  there  is 
nothing  —  I  mean  —  there  is  no  help  for  it !  "  And  here  her 
voice  dropped  to  a  mere  whisper. 

"I  sincerely  trust,"  said  I,  in  an  accent  of  great  deference 
and  sympathy,  "that  the  delay  may  not  be  the  cause  of 
grave  inconvenience  to  you;  and  although  a  perfect  stran* 
ger,  if  any  assistance  I  can  offer  —  " 

6 


82  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"No,  sir;  there  is  really  nothing  I  could  ask  from  your 
kindness.  It  was  in  turning  back  to  bid  good-bye  a  second 
time  to  my  mother  —  "  Here  her  agitation  seemed  to  choke 
her,  for  she  turned  away  and  said  no  more. 

"Shall  I  fetch  a  cab  for  you?"  I  asked.  "Would  you 
like  to  go  back  till  the  next  train  starts  ?  " 

"Oh,  by  no  means,  sir!  We  live  three  miles  from  Mil- 
ford;  and,  besides,  I  could  not  bear  — "  Here  again  she 
broke  down,  but  added,  after  a  pause,  "It  is  the  first  time 
I  have  been  away  from  home !  " 

With  a  little  gentle  force  I  succeeded  in  inducing  her  to 
enter  the  refreshment-room  of  the  station,  but  she  would 
take  nothing;  and  after  some  attempts  to  engage  her  in 
conversation  to  while  away  the  dreary  time,  I  perceived  that 
it  would  be  a  more  true  politeness  not  to  obtrude  upon  her 
sorrow;  and  so  I  lighted  my  cigar,  and  proceeded  to  walk 
up  and  down  the  long  terrace  of  the  station.  Three  trunks, 
or  rather  two  and  a  hat-box,  kept  my  knapsack  company  on 
the  side  of  the  tramway;  and  on  these  I  read,  inscribed  in 
a  large  hand,  "Miss  K.  Herbert,  per  steamer  'Ardent,' 
Ostend."  I  started.  Was  it  not  in  that  direction  my  own 
steps  were  turned?  Was  not  Blondel  in  Belgium,  and  wa& 
it  not  in  search  of  him  that  I  was  bent?  "Oh,  Fate!  "  I 
cried,  "what  subtle  device  of  thine  is  this?  What  wily 
artifice  art  thou  now  engaged  in?  Is  this  a  snare,  or  is  it 
an  aid?  Hast  thou  any  secret  purpose  in  this  rencontre? 
for  with  thee  there  are  no  chances,  no  accidents  in  thy 
vicissitudes;  all  is  prepared  and  fitted,  like  a  piece  of 
door  carpentry."  And  then  I  fell  into  weaving  a  story  for 
the  young  lady.  She  was  an  orphan.  Her  father,  the 
curate  of  the  little  parish  she  lived  in,  had  just  died,  leaving 
herself  and  her  mother  in  direst  distress.  She  was  leaving 
home,  —  the  happy  home  of  her  childhood  (I  saw  it  all  before 
me,  —  cottage,  and  garden,  and  little  lawn,  with  its  one 
cow  and  two  sheep,  and  the  small  green  wicket  beside  the 
road),  and  she  was  leaving  all  these  to  become  a  governess, 
to  an  upstart,  mill-owning,  vulgar  family  at  Brussels. 
Poor  thing!  how  my  heart  bled  for  her!  What  a  life  of 
misery  lay  before  her,  —  what  trials  of  temper  and  of  pride ! 
The  odious  children  —  I  know  they  are  odious  —  will  torture 


MY  INTEREST  IN  A  LADY  FELLOW-TRAVELLER.        83 

her  to  the  quick ;  and  Mrs.  Treddles,  or  whatever  her  detest- 
able name  is,  will  lead  her  a  terrible  life  from  jealousy ;  and 
she  '11  have  to  bear  everything,  and  cry  over  it  in  secret, 
remembering  the  once  happy  time  in  that  honeysuckled 
porch,  where  poor  papa  used  to  read  Wordsworth  for  them. 

What  a  world  of  sorrow  on  every  side;  and  how  easily 
might  it  be  made  otherwise !  What  gigantic  efforts  are  we 
forever  making  for  something  which  we  never  live  to  enjoy ! 
Striving  to  be  freer,  greater,  better  governed,  and  more 
lightly  taxed,  and  all  the  while  forgetting  that  the  real  secret 
is  to  be  on  better  terms  with  each  other,  —  more  generous, 
more  forgiving,  less  apt  to  take  offence  or  bear  malice.  Of 
mere  material  goods,  there  is  far  more  than  we  need.  The 
table  would  accommodate  more  than  double  the  guests, 
could  we  only  agree  to  sit  down  in  orderly  fashion ;  but  here 
we  have  one  occupying  three  chairs,  while  another  crouches 
on  the  floor,  and  some  even  prefer  smashing  the  furniture 
to  letting  some  more  humbly  born  take  a  place  near  them. 
I  wish  they  would  listen  to  me  on  this  theme.  I  wish,  in- 
stead of  all  this  social  science  humbug  and  art-union  balder- 
dash, they  would  hearken  to  the  voice  of  a  plain  man,  say- 
ing. Are  you  not  members  of  one  family,  —  the  individuals 
of  one  household  ?  Is  it  not  clear  to  you,  if  you  extend  the 
kindly  affections  you  now  reserve  for  the  narrow  circle 
wherein  you  live  to  the  wider  area  of  mankind,  that,  while 
diffusing  countless  blessings  to  others,  you  will  yourself 
become  better,  more  charitable,  more  kind-hearted,  wider 
in  reach  of  thought,  more  catholic  in  philanthropy?  I  can 
imagine  such  a  world,  and  feel  it  to  be  a  Paradise, —  a  world 
with  no  social  distinctions,  no  inequalities  of  condition,  and, 
consequently,  no  insolent  pride  of  station,  nor  any  degrad- 
ing subserviency  of  demeanor,  no  rivalries,  no  jealousies, 
—  love  and  benevolence  everywhere.  In  such  a  sphere  th^ 
calm  equanimity  of  mind  by  which  great  things  are  accom- 
plished, would  in  itself  constitute  a  perfect  heaven.  No 
impatience  of  temper,  no  passing  irritation  — 

"Where  the are  you  driving  to,  sir?  "  cried  I,  as  a 

fellow  with  a  brass-bound  trunk  in  a  hand-barrow  came 
smash  against  my  shin. 

"Don't  you  see,  sir,  the  train  is  just  starting?"  said  he, 


84  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

hastening  on ;  and  I  now  perceived  that  such  was  the  case, 
and  that  I  had  barely  time  to  rush  down  to  the  pay-oflSce  and 
secure  my  ticket. 

"What  class,  sir?"  cried  the  clerk. 

"Which  has  she  taken?"  said  I,  forgetting  all  save  the 
current  of  my  own  thoughts. 

"First  or  second,  sir?"  repeated  he,  impatiently. 

"Either,  or  both,"  replied  I,  in  confusion;  and  he  flung 
me  back  some  change  and  a  blue  card,  closing  the  little 
shutter  with  a  bang  that  announced  the  end  of  all  colloquy. 

"Get  in,  sir!" 

* '  Which  carriage  ?  " 

"Get  in,  sir!" 

"Second-class?  Here  you  are!  "  called  out  an  oflBcial,  as 
he  thrust  me  almost  rudely  into  a  vile  mob  of  travellers. 

The  bell  rang  out,  and  two  snorts  and  a  scream  followed, 
then  a  heave  and  a  jerk,  and  away  we  went.  As  soon  as  I 
had  time  to  look  around  me,  I  saw  that  my  companions  were 
all  persons  of  an  humble  order  of  the  middle  class,  —  the 
small  shopkeepers  and  traders,  probably,  of  the  locality  we 
were  leaving.  Their  easy  recognition  of  each  other,  and 
the  natural  way  their  conversation  took  up  local  matters, 
soon  satisfied  me  of  this  fact,  and  reconciled  me  to  fall  back 
upon  my  own  thoughts  for  occupation  and  amusement. 
This  was  with  me  the  usual  prelude  to  a  sleep,  to  which  I 
was  quietly  composing  myself  soon  after.  The  droppings 
of  the  conversation  around  me,  however,  prevented  this; 
for  the  talk  had  taken  a  discussional  tone,  and  the  differ- 
ences of  opinion  were  numerous.  The  question  debated  was, 
Whether  a  certain  Sir  Samuel  Somebody  was  a  great  rogue, 
or  only  unfortunate?  The  reasons  for  either  opinion  were 
well  put  and  defended,  showing  that  the  company,  like 
most  others  of  that  class  in  life  in  England,  had  cultivated 
their  faculties  of  judgment  and  investigation  by  the  habit 
of  attending  trials  or  reading  reports  of  them  in  newspapers. 

After  the  discussion  on  his  morality,  came  the  question, 
Was  he  alive  or  dead  ? 

"Sir  Samuel  never  shot  himself,  sir,"  said  a  short  plufify 
man  with  an  asthma.  "  I  've  known  him  for  years,  and  I 
can  say  he  was  not  a  man  to  do  such  an  act." 


MY  INTEREST  IN  A  LADY  FELLOW-TRAVELLEK.        85 

"Well,  sir,  the  Ostrich  and  the  United  Brethren  offices 
are  both  of  your  opinion,"  said  another;  "they  '11  not  pay 
the  policy  on  his  life." 

"The  law  only  recognizes  death  on  production  of  the 
body,"  sagely  observed  a  man  in  shabby  black,  with  a  satin 
neckcloth,  and  whom  I  afterwards  perceived  was  regarded 
as  a  legal  authority. 

"What 's  to  be  done,  then,  if  a  man  be  drowned  at  sea,  or 
burned  to  a  cinder  in  a  lime-kiln?  " 

"Ay,  or  by  what  they  call  spontaneous  combustion,  that 
does  n't  leave  a  shred  of  you?  "  cried  three  objectors  in  turn. 

"The  law  provides  for  these  emergencies  with  its  usual 
wisdom,  gentlemen.  Where  death  may  not  be  actually 
proven  it  can  be  often  inferred." 

"But  who  says  that  Sir  Samuel  is  dead?"  broke  in  the 
asthmatic  man,  evidently  impatient  at  the  didactic  tone  of 
the  attorney.  "All  we  know  of  the  matter  is  a  letter  of  his 
own  signing,  that  when  these  lines  are  read  I  shall  be  no 
more.  Now,  is  that  sufficient  evidence  of  death  to  induce 
an  insurance  comf>any  to  hand  over  some  eight  or  ten  thou- 
sand pounds  to  his  family  ?  '* 

"I  believe  you  might  say  thirty  thousand,  sir,"  suggested 
a  mild  voice  from  the  corner. 

"Nothing  of  the  kind,"  interposed  another;  "the  really 
heavy  policies  on  his  life  were  held  by  an  old  Cumberland 
baronet.  Sir  Elkanah  Crofton,  who  first  established  Whalley 
in  the  iron  trade.  I  've  heard  it  from  my  father  fifty  times, 
when  a  child,  that  Sam  Whalley  entered  Milford  in  a  fus- 
tian jacket,  with  all  his  traps  in  a  handkerchief." 

At  the  mention  of  Sir  Elkanah  Crofton,  my  attention 
was  quickly  excited;  this  was  the  uncle  of  my  friends  at 
the  Rosary,  and  I  was  at  once  curious  to  hear  more  of  him. 

"  Fustian  jacket  or  not,  he  had  a  good  head  on  his  shoul- 
ders," remarked  one. 

"And  luck,  sir;  luck,  which  is  better  than  any  head," 
sighed  the  meek  man,  sorrowfully. 

"I  deny  that,  deny  it  totally,"  broke  in  he  of  the  asthma. 
"If  Sam  Whalley  hadn't  been  a  man  of  first-rate  order,  he 
never  could  have  made  that  concern  what  it  was,  —  the  first 
foundry  in  Wales." 


86  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

''And  what  is  it  now,  and  where  is  he?  "  asked  the  attor- 
ney, triumphantly. 

"At  rest,  I  hope,"  murmured  the  sad  man. 

"Not  a  bit  of  it,  sir,"  said  the  wheezing  voice,  in  a  tone 
of  confidence;  "take  my  word  for  it,  he  's  alive  and  hearty, 
somewhere  or  other,  ay,  and  we  '11  hear  of  him  one  of  these 
days :  he  '11  be  smelting  metals  in  Africa,  or  cutting  a  canal 
through  the  Isthmus  of  Heaven  knows  what,  or  prime  min- 
ister of  one  of  those  rajahs  in  India.  He  's  a  clever  dog, 
and  he  knows  it  too.  I  saw  what  he  thought  of  himself  the 
day  old  Sir  Elkanah  came  down  to  Fairbridge." 

"To  be  sure,  you  were  there  that  morning,"  said  the 
attorney;  "tell  us  about  that  meeting." 

"It's  soon  told,"  resumed  the  other.  "When  Sir 
Elkanah  Crofton  arrived  at  the  house,  we  were  all  in  the 
garden.  Sir  Samuel  had  taken  me  there  to  see  some  tulips, 
which  he  said  were  the  finest  in  Europe,  except  some  at  the 
Hague.  Maybe  it  was  that  the  old  baronet  was  vexed  at 
seeing  nobody  come  to  meet  him,  or  that  something  else 
had  crossed  him,  but  as  he  entered  the  garden  I  saw  he  was 
sorely  out  of  temper. 

"'How  d'ye  do.  Sir  Elkanah?'  said  Whalley  to  him, 
coming  up  pleasantly.  '  We  scarcely  expected  you  before 
dinner-time.  My  wife  and  my  daughters,'  said  he,  intro- 
ducing them ;  but  the  other  only  removed  his  hat  ceremo- 
niously, without  ever  noticing  them  in  the  least. 

"'I  hope  you  had  a  pleasant  journey,  Sir  Elkanah?' 
said  Whalley,  after  a  pause,  while,  with  a  short  jerk  of  his 
head,  he  made  signs  to  the  ladies  to  leave  them. 

"'I  trust  I  am  not  the  means  of  breaking  up  a  family 
party  ? '  said  the  other,  half  sarcasticall3^  '  Is  Mrs. 
Whalley  —  ' 

"*  Lady  Whalley,  with  your  good  permission,  sir,*  said 
Samuel,  stiflfly. 

"  '  Of  course;  how  stupid  of  me!  I  should  remember  you 
had  been  knighted.  And,  indeed,  the  thought  was  full  upon 
me  as  I  came  along,  for  I  scarcely  suppose  that  if  higher 
ambitions  had  not  possessed,  you,  I  should  find  the  farm 
buildings  and  the  outhouse  in  the  state  of  ruin  I  see  them. ' 

" '  They  are  better  by  ten  thousand  pounds  than  the  day 


MY  INTEREST  IN  A  LADY  FELLOW-TRAVELLER.        87 

on  which  I  first  saw  them ;  and  I  say  it  in  the  presence  of 
this  honest  townsman  here,  my  neighbor,  *  —  meaning  me,  — 
'  that  both  you  and  they  were  very  creaky  concerns  when  I 
took  you  in  hand/ 

*'I  thought  the  old  Baronet  was  going  to  have  a  fit  at  these 
words,  and  he  caught  hold  of  my  arm  and  swayed  backwards 
and  forwards  all  the  time,  his  face  purple  with  passion. 

'' '  Who  made  you,  sir?  who  made  you?  *  cried  he,  at  last, 
with  a  voice  trembling  with  rage. 

"  '  The  same  hand  that  made  us  all,*  said  the  other, 
calmly.  '  The  same  wise  Providence  that,  for  his  own  ends, 
creates  drones  as  well  as  bees,  and  makes  rickety  old  bar- 
onets as  well  as  men  of  brains  and  industry.' 

*^  '  You  shall  rue  this  insolence;  it  shall  cost  you  dearly, 
by  Heaven ! '  cried  out  the  old  man,  as  he  gripped  me  tighter. 
*  You  are  a  witness,  sir,  to  the  way  I  have  been  insulted. 
I  '11  foreclose  your  mortgage  —  I  '11  call  in  every  shilling 
I  have  advanced  —  I  '11  sell  the  house  over  your  head  —  ' 

''  '  Ay!  but  the  head  without  a  roof  over  it  will  hold  itself 
higher  than  your  own,  old  man.  The  good  faculties  and 
good  health  God  has  given  me  are  worth  all  your  title-deeds 
twice  told.  If  I  walk  out  of  this  town  as  poor  as  the  day 
I  came  into  it,  I  '11  go  with  the  calm  certainty  that  I  can 
earn  my  bread,  —  a  process  that  would  be  very  diflScult  for 
you  when  you  could  not  lend  out  money  on  interest. ' 

''  *  Give  me  your  arm,  sir,  back  to  the  town,'  said  the  old 
Baronet  to  me ;  'I  feel  myself  too  ill  to  go  all  alone. ' 

"  '  Get  him  to  step  into  the  house  and  take  something,' 
whispered  Whalley  in  my  ear,  as  he  turned  away  and  left  us. 
But  I  was  afraid  to  propose  it;  indeed,  if  1  had,  I  believe 
the  old  man  would  have  had  a  fit  on  the  spot,  for  he  trem- 
bled from  head  to  foot,  and  drew  long  sighs,  as  if  recover- 
ing out  of  a  faint. 

"  '  Is  there  an  inn  near  this,'  asked  he,  '  where  I  can  stop? 
and  have  you  a  doctor  here  ?  * 

"  '  You  can  have  both,  Sir  Elkanah,'  said  I. 

"  '  You  know  me,  then?  —  you  know  who  I  am?'  said  he, 
hastily,  as  I  called  him  by  his  name. 

"*  That  I  do,  sir,  and  I  hold  my  place  under  you;  my 
name  is  Shore.' 


gg  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"  '  Yes,  I  remember,'  said  he,  vaguely,  as  he  moved  away. 
When  we  came  to  the  gate  on  the  road  he  turned  around  full 
and  looked  at  the  house,  overgrown  with  that  rich  red  creeper 
that  was  so  much  admired.  '  Mark  my  words,  my  good 
man,'  said  he,  — '  mark  them  well,  and  as  sure  as  I  live, 
I  '11  not  leave  one  stone  on  another  of  that  dwelling  there.'  " 

*'He  was  promising  more  than  he  could  perform,"  said 
the  attorney. 

''I  don't  know  that,"  sighed  the  meek  man;  "there  's  very 
little  that  money  can't  do  in  this  life." 

**  And  what  has  become  of  Whalley's  widow,  — if  she  be  a 
widow  ?  "  asked  one. 

*' She's  in  a  poor  way.  She  's  up  at  the  village  yonder, 
and,  with  the  help  of  one  of  her  girls,  she  's  trying  to  keep  a 
children's  school." 

"Lady  Whalley's  school?"  exclaimed  one,  in  half 
sarcasm. 

"Yes;  but  she  has  taken  her  maiden  name  again  since 
this  disaster,  and  calls  herself  Mrs.  Herbert." 

"  Has  she  more  than  one  daughter,  sir  ?  "  I  asked  of  the 
last  speaker. 

"Yes,  there  are  two  girls;  the  younger  one,  they  tell  me, 
is  going,  or  gone  abroad,  to  take  some  situation  or  other, 
—  a  teacher,  or  a  governess." 

"No,  sir,"  said  the  pluffy  man,  "Miss  Kate  has  gone  as 
companion  to  an  old  widow  lady  at  Brussels,  —  Mrs.  Keats. 
I  saw  the  letter  that  arranged  the  terms,  —  a  trifle  less  per 
annum  than  her  mother  gave  to  her  maid." 

"Poor  girl!"  sighed  the  sad  man.  "It 's  a  dreary  way 
to  begin  life !  " 

I  nodded  assentingly  to  him,  and  with  a  smile  of  grati- 
tude for  his  sympathy.  Indeed,  the  sentiment  had  linked 
me  to  him,  and  made  me  wish  to  be  beside  him.  The  con- 
versation now  grew  discursive,  on  the  score  of  all  the  diffi- 
culties that  beset  women  when  reduced  to  make  efforts  for 
their  own  support;  and  though  the  speakers  were  men  well 
able  to  understand  and  pronounce  upon  the  knotty  problem, 
the  subject  did  not  possess  interest  enough  to  turn  my  mind 
from  the  details  I  had  just  been  hearing.  The  name  of  Miss 
Herbert  on  the  trunks  showed  me  now  who  was  the  young 


MY  INTEKEST  IN  A  LADY  FELLOW-TRAVELLER.        89 

lady  I  had  met,  and  I  reproached  myself  bitterly  with  hav- 
ing separated  from  her,  and  thus  forfeited  the  occasion  of 
befriending  her  on  her  journey.  We  were  to  sup  somewhere 
about  eleven,  and  I  resolved  that  I  would  do  my  utmost  to 
discover  her,  if  in  the  train;  and  I  occupied  myself  now 
with  imagining  numerous  pretexts  for  presuming  to  offer 
my  services  on  her  behalf.  She  will  readily  comprehend  the 
disinterested  character  of  my  attentions.  She  will  see  that 
I  come  in  no  spirit  of  levity,  but  moved  by  a  true  sympathy 
and  the  respectful  sentiment  of  one  touched  by  her  sorrows. 
I  can  fancy  her  coy  diffidence  giving  way  before  the  defer- 
ential homage  of  my  manner;  and  in  this  I  really  believe  I 
have  some  tact.  I  was  not  sorry  to  pursue  this  theme 
undisturbed  by  the  presence  of  my  fellow-travellers,  who 
had  now  got  out  at  a  station,  leaving  me  all  alone  to  medi- 
tate and  devise  imaginary  conversations  with  Miss  Herbert. 
I  rehearsed  to  myself  the  words  by  which  to  address  her,  my 
bow,  my  gesture,  my  faint  smile,  a  blending  of  melancholy 
with  kindliness,  my  whole  air  a  union  of  the  deference  of 
the  stranger  with  something  almost  fraternal.  These  pleas- 
ant musings  were  now  rudely  routed  by  the  return  of  my 
fellow-travellers,  who  came  hurrying  back  to  their  places 
at  the  banging  summons  of  a  great  bell. 

"Everything  cold,  as  usual.  It  is  a  perfect  disgrace  how 
the  public  are  treated  on  this  line ! "  cried  one. 

"  I  never  think  of  anything  but  a  biscuit  and  a  glass  of 
ale,  and  they  charged  me  elevenpence  halfpenny  for  that." 

"The  directors  ought  to  look  to  this.  I  saw  those  ham- 
sandwiches  when  I  came  down  here  last  Tuesday  week." 

"And  though  the  time-table  gives  us  fifteen  minutes,  I 
can  swear,  for  I  laid  my  watch  on  the  table,  that  we  only 
got  nine  and  a  half." 

"Well,  I  supped  heartily  off  that  spiced  round." 

"Supped,  supped!  Did  you  say  you  had  supped  here, 
sir?"  asked  I,  in  anxiety. 

"Yes,  sir;  that  last  station  was  Trentham.  They  give  us 
nothing  more  now  till  we  reach  town." 

I  lay  back  with  a  faint  sigh,  and,  from  that  moment, 
took  no  note  of  time  till  the  guard  cried  "London!  " 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   PERILS    OF    MY   JOURNEY   TO    OSTEND. 

"Young  lady  in  deep  mourning,  sir, — crape  shawl  and 
iDonnet,  sir,"  said  the  official,  in  answer  to  my  question, 
aided  by  a  shilling  fee;  ''the  same  as  asked  where  was  the 
station  for  the  Dover  Line." 

*'Yes,  yes;  that  must  be  she." 

"Got  into  a  cab,  sir,  and  drove  off  straight  for  the  Sou'- 
Eastern." 

"  She  was  quite  alone  ?  " 

"Quite,  sir;  but  she  seems  used  to  travelling,  — got  her 
traps  together  in  no  time,  and  was  off  in  a  jiffy." 

"Stupid  dog!"  thought  I;  "with  every  advantage  posi- 
tion and  accident  can  confer,  how  little  this  fellow  reads  of 
character!  In  this  poor,  forlorn,  heart-weary  orphan,  he 
only  sees  something  like  a  commercial  traveller! " 

"Any  luggage,  sir?  Is  this  yours?  "  said  he,  pointing  to 
a  woolsack. 

"No,"  said  I,  haughtily;  "my  servants  have  gone  for- 
ward with  my  luggage.  I  have  nothing  but  a  knapsack." 
And  with  an  air  of  dignity  I  flung  it  into  a  hansom,  and 
ordered  the  driver  to  set  me  down  at  the  South-Eastern. 
Although  using  every  exertion,  the  train  had  just  started 
when  I  arrived,  and  a  second  time  was  I  obliged  to  wait  some 
hours  at  a  station.  Resolving  to  free  myself  from  all  the 
captivations  of  that  tendency  to  day-dreaming,  —  that  fatal 
habit  of  suffering  my  fancy  to  direct  my  steps,  as  though 
in  pursuit  of  some  settled  purpose,  —  I  calmly  asked  myself 
whither  I  was  going  —  and  for  what?  Before  I  had  begun 
the  examination,  I  deemed  myself  a  most  candid,  truth- 
observing,  frank  witness,  and  now  I  discovered  that  I  was 
•casuistical  and  "dodgy  "  as  an  Old  Bailey  lawyer.     I  was 


THE  PERILS  OF  MY  JOURNEY  TO  OSTEND.  91 

haughty  and  indignant  at  being  so  catechised.  My  con- 
science, on  the  shallow  pretext  of  being  greatly  interested 
about  me,  was  simply  prying  and  inquisitive.  Conscience 
is  all  very  well  when  one  desires  to  appeal  to  it,  and  refer 
some  distinct  motive  or  action  to  its  appreciation;  but  it  is 
scarcely  fair,  and  certainly  not  dignified,  for  conscience  to 
go  about  seeking  for  little  accusations  of  this  kind  or  that. 
What  liberty  of  action  is  there,  besides,  to  a  man  who 
carries  a  "detective"  with  him  wherever  he  goes?  And 
lastly,  conscience  has  the  intolerable  habit  of  obtruding  its 
opinion  upon  details,  and  will  not  wait  to  judge  by  results. 
Now,  when  I  have  won  the  race,  come  in  first,  amid  the 
enthusiastic  cheers  of  thousands,  I  don't  care  to  be  asked, 
however  privately,  whether  I  did  not  practise  some  little  bit 
of  rather  unfair  jockeyship.  I  never  could  rightly  get 
over  my  dislike  to  the  friend  who  would  take  this  liberty 
with  me;  and  this  is  exactly  the  part  conscience  plays,  and 
with  an  insufferable  air  of  superiority,  too,  as  though  to  say, 
*'None  of  your  shuffling  with  me,  Potts!  That  will  do  all 
mighty  well  with  the  outer  world,  but  I  am  not  to  be  hum- 
bugged. You  never  devised  a  scheme  in  your  life  that  I 
was  not  by  at  the  cookery,  and  saw  how  you  mixed  the 
ingredients  and  stirred  the  pot!  No,  no,  old  fellow,  all 
your  little  secret  rogueries  will  avail  you  nothing  here !  " 

Had  these  words  been  actually  addressed  to  me  by  a 
living  individual,  I  could  not  have  heard  them  more  plainly 
than  now  they  fell  upon  my  ear,  uttered,  besides,  in  a  tone  of 
cutting,  sarcastic  derision.  "I  will  stand  this  no  longer!  " 
cried  I,  springing  up  from  my  seat  and  flinging  my  cigar 
angrily  away.  "I  'm  certain  no  man  ever  accomplished  any 
high  and  great  destiny  in  life  who  suffered  himself  to  be 
bullied  in  this  wise;  such  irritating,  pestering  impertinence 
would  destroy  the  temper  of  a  saint,  and  break  down  the 
courage  and  damp  the  ardor  of  the  boldest.  Could  great 
measures  of  statecraft  be  carried  out  —  could  battles  be  won 
—  could  new  continents  be  discovered,  if  at  every  strait  and 
every  emergency  one  was  to  be  interrupted  by  a  low  voice, 
whispering,  'Is  this  all  right?  Are  there  no  flaws  here? 
You  live  in  a  world  of  frailties,  Potts.  You  are  playing  at 
a  round  game,  where  every  one  cheats  a  little,  and  where  the 


92  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

rogueries  are  never  remembered  against  him  who  wins* 
Bear  that  in  your  mind,  and  keep  your  cards  "up."  '  '* 

When  I  was  about  to  take  my  ticket,  a  dictum  of  the  great 
moralist  struck  my  mind :  "  Desultory  reading  has  slain  its 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands ; "  and  if  desultory  read- 
ing, why  not  infinitely  more  so  desultory  acquaintance? 
Surely,  our  readings  do  not  impress  us  as  powerfully  as  the 
actual  intercourse  of  life.  It  must  be  so.  It  is  in  this  daily 
conflict  with  our  fellow-men  that  we  are  moulded  and  fash- 
ioned; and  the  danger  is,  to  commingle  and  confuse  the 
impressions  made  upon  our  hearts,  to  cross  the  writing  on 
our  natures  so  often  that  nothing  remains  legible!  "I  will 
guard  against  this  peril,"  thought  I.  "I  will  concentrate 
my  intentions  and  travel  alone."  I  slipped  a  crown  into  a 
guard's  hand,  and  whispered,  "Put  no  one  in  here  if  you  can 
help  it."  As  I  jogged  along,  all  by  myself,  I  could  not 
help  feeling  that  one  of  the  highest  privileges  of  wealth  must 
be  to  be  able  always  to  buy  solitude, —  to  be  in  a  position  to 
say,  "None  shall  invade  me.  The  world  must  contrive  to 
go  round  without  a  kick  from  me.  I  am  a  self-contained  and 
self-suffering  creature."  If  I  were  Rothschild,  I  'd  revel  in 
this  sentiment;  it  places  one  so  immeasurably  above  that 
busy  ant-hill  where  one  sees  the  creatures  hurrying,  hasten- 
ing, and  fagging  "till  their  hearts  are  broken."  One  feels 
himself  a  superior  intelligence,  —  a  being  above  the  wants 
and  cares  of  the  work-a-day  world  around  him. 

"Any  room  here?  "  cried  a  merry  voice,  breaking  in  upon 
my  musing ;  and  at  the  same  instant  a  young  fellow,  in  a 
gray  travelling-suit  and  a  wideawake,  flung  a  dressing-bag 
and  a  wrapper  carelessly  into  the  carriage,  and  so  recklessly 
as  to  come  tumbling  over  me.  He  never  thought  of  apology, 
however,  but  continued  his  remarks  to  the  guard,  who  was 
evidently  endeavoring  to  induce  him  to  take  a  place  else- 
where. "No,  no!"  cried  the  young  man;  "I'm  all  right 
here,  and  the  cove  with  the  yellow  hair  won't  object  to  my 
smoking." 

I  heard  these  words  as  I  sat  in  the  corner,  and  I  need 
scarcely  say  how  grossly  the  impertinence  offended  me. 
That  the  privacy  I  had  paid  for  should  be  invaded  was  bad 
enough,  but  that  my  companion  should  begin  acquaintance 


THE  PERILS  OF  MY  JOURNEY  TO   OSTEND.  93 

with  an  insult  was  worse  again ;  and  so  I  determined  on  no 
account,  nor  upon  any  pretext,  would  I  hold  intercourse  with 
him,  but  maintain  a  perfect  silence  and  reserve  so  long  as 
our  journey  lasted. 

There  was  an  insufferable  jauntiness  and  self-satisfaction 
in  every  movement  of  the  new  arrival,  even  to  the  reckless 
way  he  pitched  into  the  carriage  three  small  white  canvas 
bags,  carefully  sealed  and  docketed ;  the  address  —  which  I 

read  —  being,  "To  H.M.*s  Minister  and  Envoy  at ,  by 

the  Hon.  Grey  Buller,  Attache,  &c.'*  So,  then,  this  was 
one  of  the  Young  Guard  of  Diplomacy,  one  of  those  suck- 
ing Talleyrands,  which  form  the  hope  of  the  Foreign  Office 
and  the  terror  of  middle-class  English  abroad. 

"Do  you  mind  smoking?'*  asked  he,  abruptly,  as  he 
scraped  his  lucifer  match  against  the  roof  of  the  carriage, 
showing,  by  the  promptitude  of  his  action,  how  little  he 
oared  for  my  reply. 

"  I  never  smoke,  sir,  except  in  the  carriages  reserved  for 
smokers,"  was  my  rebukeful  answer. 

"And  I  always  do,"  said  he,  in  a  very  easy  tone. 

Not  condescending  to  notice  this  rude  rejoinder,  I  drew 
forth  my  newspaper,  and  tried  to  occupy  myself  with  its 
•contents. 

"Anything  new?"  asked  he,  abruptly. 

"  Not  that  I  am  aware,  sir.  I  was  about  to  consult  the 
paper. " 

•'What  paper  is  it?" 

"It  is  the  '  Banner,'  sir,  — at  your  service,"  said  I,  with 
B.  sort  of  sarcasm. 

"Rascally  print;  a  vile,  low,  radical,  mill-owning  organ. 
Pitch  it  away !  " 

"  Certainly  not,  sir.  Being  for  me  and  mi/  edification,  I 
will  beg  to  exercise  my  own  judgment  as  to  how  I  deal 
with  it." 

"It's  deuced  low,  that's  what  it  is,  and  that's  exactly 
the  fault  of  all  our  daily  papers.  Their  tone  is  vulgar ;  they 
reflect  nothing  of  the  opinions  one  hears  in  society.  Don't 
you  agree  with  me  ?  " 

I  gave  a  sort  of  muttering  dissent,  and  he  broke  in 
quickly,  — 


94  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

"Perhaps  not;  it's  just  as  likely  ijou  would  not  think 
them  low,  but  take  my  word  for  it,  /'m  right." 

I  shook  my  head  negatively,  without  speaking. 

''Well,  now,**  cried  he,  "let  us  put  the  thing  to  the  test. 
Read  out  one  of  those  leaders.  I  don't  care  which,  or  on 
what  subject.  Read  it  out,  and  I  pledge  myself  to  show 
you  at  least  one  vulgarism,  one  flagrant  outrage  on  good 
breeding,  in  every  third  sentence." 

"I  protest,  sir,"  said  I,  haughtily,  "I  shall  do  no  such 
thing.  I  have  come  here  neither  to  read  aloud  nor  take  up 
the  defence  of  the  public  press." 

"I  say,  look  out!  "  cried  he;  "you  '11  smash  something  in 
that  bag  you  're  kicking  there.  If  I  don't  mistake,  it 's 
Bohemian  glass.  No,  no;  all  right,"  said  he,  examining 
the  number,  "it's  only  Yarmouth  bloaters." 

"I  imagined  these  contained  despatches,  sir,"  said  I, 
with  a  look  of  what  he  ought  to  have  understood  as  wither- 
ing scorn. 

"You  did,  did  you?"  cried  he,  with  a  quick  laugh. 
"Well,  I  '11  bet  you  a  sovereign  I  make  a  better  guess  about 
your  pack  than  you  've  done  about  mine." 

"Done,  sir;  I  take  you,"  said  I,  quickly. 

"  Well ;  you  're  in  cutlery,  or  hardware,  or  lace  goods,  or 
ribbons,  or  alpaca  cloth,  or  drugs,  ain't  you?" 

"I  am  not,  sir,"  was  my  stern  reply. 

"Not  a  bagman?" 

"Not  a  bagman,  sir." 

"Well,  you  're  an  usher  in  a  commercial  academy,  or  *  our 
own  correspondent, '  or  a  telegraph  clerk  ?  " 

"I'm  none  of  these,  sir.  And  I  now  beg  to  remind  you, 
that  instead  of  one  guess,  you  have  made  about  a  dozen." 

"Well,  you  've  won,  there  's  no  denying  it,"  said  he,  tak- 
ing a  sovereign  from  his  waistcoat-pocket  and  handing  it  to 
me.  "It 's  deuced  odd  how  I  should  be  mistaken.  I  'd  have 
sworn  you  were  a  bagman ! "  But  for  the  impertinence  of 
these  last  words  I  should  have  declined  to  accept  his  lost 
bet,  but  I  took  it  now  as  a  sort  of  vindication  of  my  wounded 
feelings.  "Now  it's  all  over  and  ended,"  said  he,  calmly, 
"what  are  you?  I  don't  ask  out  of  any  impertinent  curi- 
osity, but  that  I  hate  being  foiled  in  a  thing  of  this  kind. 
What  are  you  ?  " 


THE  PERILS  OF  MY  JOURNEY  TO   OSTEND.  95 

**I*11  tell  you  what  I  am,  sir,"  said  I,  indignantly,  for 
now  I  was  outraged  beyond  endurance,, —  "I  '11  tell  you,  sir, 
what  I  am,  and  what  I  feel  myself, —  one  singularly  unlucky 
iu  a  travelling-companion." 

"Bet  you  a  five-pound  note  you're  not,"  broke  he  in. 
"Give  you  six  to  five  on  it,  in  anything  you  like." 

"It  would  be  a  wager  almost  impossible  to  decide,  sir." 

"Nothing  of  the  kind.  Let  us  leave  it  to  the  first  pretty 
woman  we  see  at  the  station,  the  guard  of  the  train,  the 
fellow  in  the  pay-oflSce,  the  stoker  if  you  like." 

"I  must  own,  sir,  that  you  express  a  very  confident  opin- 
ion of  your  case. " 

"Will  you  bet?" 

"No,  sir,  certainly  not." 

"Well,  then,  shut  up,  and  say  no  more  about  it.  If  a 
man  won't  back  his  opinion,  the  less  he  says  the  better." 

I  lay  back  in  my  place  at  this,  determined  that  no  provo- 
cation should  induce  me  to  exchange  another  word  with  him. 
Apparently,  he  had  not  made  a  like  resolve,  for  he  went  on: 
"It 'sail  bosh  about  appearances  being  deceptive,  and  so 
forth.  They  say  '  not  all  gold  that  glitters ; '  my  notion  is 
that  with  a  fellow  who  really  knows  life,  no  disguise  that 
was  ever  invented  will  be  successful:  the  way  a  man  wears 
his  hair,"  —  here  he  looked  at  mine,  —  "  the  sort  of  gloves  he 
has,  if  there  be  anything  peculiar  in  his  waistcoat,  and, 
above  all,  his  boots.  I  don't  believe  the  devil  was  ever  more 
revealed  in  his  hoof  than  a  snob  by  his  shoes."  A  most 
condemnatory  glance  at  my  extremities  accompanied  this 
speech. 

"  Must  I  endure  this  sort  of  persecution  all  the  way  to 
Dover?"  was  the  question  I  asked  of  my  misery. 

"Look  out,  you're  on  fire!"  said  he,  with  a  dry  laugh. 
And  sure  enough,  a  spark  from  his  cigarette  had  fallen  on 
my  trousers,  and  burned  a  round  hole  in  them. 

"Really,  sir,"  cried  I,  in  passionate  warmth,  "your  con- 
duct becomes  intolerable." 

"  Well,  if  I  knew  you  preferred  being  singed,  I  'd  have 
said  nothing  about  it.  What 's  this  station  here?  Where's 
your  '  Bradshaw  '  ?  " 

"I  have  got  no  *  Bradshaw,'  sir,"  said  I,  with  dignity. 


96  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"No  '  Bradshaw  ' !  A  bagman  without '  Bradshaw  ' !  Oh, 
I  forgot,  you  ain't  a  bagman.  Why  are  we  stopping  here^ 
Something  smashed,  I  suspect.  Eh!  what!  isn't  that  she? 
Yes,  it  is !  Open  the  door !  —  let  me  out,  I  say !  Confound 
the  lock !  —  let  me  out !  "  While  he  uttered  these  words,  in 
an  accent  of  the  wildest  impatience,  I  had  but  time  to  see  a 
lady,  in  deep  mourning,  pass  on  to  a  carriage  in  front,  just 
as,  with  a  preliminary  snort,  the  train  shook,  then  backed, 
and  at  last  set  out  on  its  thundering  course  again.  "Such 
a  stunning  fine  girl ! "  said  he,  as  he  lighted  a  fresh  cigar ; 
"saw  her  just  as  we  started,  and  thought  I  'd  run  her  to  earth 
in  this  carriage.  Precious  mistake  I  made,  eh,  wasn't  it? 
All  in  black  —  deep  black  —  and  quite  alone !  " 

I  had  to  turn  towards  the  window  not  to  let  him  perceive 
how  his  words  agitated  me,  for  I  felt  certain  it  was  Miss 
Herbert  he  was  describing,  and  I  felt  a  sort  of  revulsion  to 
think  of  the  poor  girl  being  subjected  to  the  impertinence 
of  this  intolerable  puppy. 

"Too  much  style  about  her  for  a  governess;  and  yet, 
somehow,  she  was  n't,  so  to  say  —  you  know  what  I  mean  — 
she  was  n't  altogether  that ;  looked  frightened,  and  people  of 
real  class  never  look  frightened." 

"The  daughter  of  a  clergyman,  probably,"  said  I,  with  a 
tone  of  such  reproof  as  I  hoped  must  check  all  levity. 

"Or  a  flash  maid!  some  of  them,  nowadays,  are  wonderful 
swells ;  they  've  got  an  art  of  dressing  and  making-up  that 
is  really  surprising." 

"I  have  no  experience  of  the  order,  sir,"  said  I,  gravely. 

"  Well,  so  I  should  say.  Your  beat  is  in  the  haberdashery 
or  hosiery  line,  eh?  " 

"Has  it  not  yet  occurred  to  you,  sir,"  asked  I,  sternly, 
"that  an  acquaintanceship  brief  as  ours  should  exclude  per- 
sonalities, not  to  say  —  "I  wanted  to  add  "impertinences ;  " 
but  his  gray  eyes  were  turned  full  on  me,  with  an  expression 
so  peculiar  that  I  faltered,  and  could  not  get  the  word  out, 

''  Well,  go  on,  —  out  with  it:  not  to  say  what?  "  said  he, 
calmly. 

I  turned  my  shoulder  towards  him,  and  nestled  down  into 
my  place. 

''There's  a  thing,  now,"  said  he,  in  a  tone  of  the  coolest 


THE  PERILS  OF  MY  JOURNEY  TO  OSTEND.  97 

reflection,  —  ''there's  a  thing,  now,  that  I  never  could 
understand,  and  I  have  never  met  the  man  to  explain  it. 
Our  nation,  as  a  nation,  is  just  as  plucky  as  the  French,  — 
no  one  disputes  it;  and  yet  take  a  Frenchman  of  your 
<jlass,  —  the  commis-voyageur^  or  anything  that  way,  —  and 
you  '11  just  find  him  as  prompt  on  the  point  of  honor  as  the 
best  noble  in  the  land.  He  never  utters  an  insolent  speech 
without  being  ready  to  back  it." 

I  felt  as  if  I  were  choking,  but  I  never  uttered  a  word. 

"I  remember  meeting  one  of  those  fellows  —  traveller 
for  some  house  in  the  wine  trade  —  at  Avignon.  It  was 
at  table  d'hote^  and  I  said  something  slighting  about  Com- 
munism, and  he  replied,  '  Monsieur,  je  suis  Fourieriste^ 
and  you  insult  me.*  Thereupon  he  sent  me  his  card  by 
the  waiter,  —  '  Paul  Deloge,  for  the  house  of  Gougon,  pere 
etfils.^  I  tore  it,  and  threw  it  away,  saying,  'I  never 
drink  Bordeaux  wines.'  '  What  do  you  say  to  a  glass  of 
Hermitage,  then?'  said  he,  and  flung  the  contents  of  his 
own  in  my  face.  Wasn't  that  very  ready?  /  call  it  as 
neat  a  thing  as  could  be." 

"  And  you  bore  that  outrage,"  said  I,  in  triumphant  de- 
light; "you  submitted  to  a  flagrant  insult  like  that  at  a 
public  table?" 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  call  '  bearing  it,' "  said  he ; 
"  the  thing  was  done,  and  I  had  only  to  wipe  my  face  with 
my  napkin." 

"  Nothing  more?"  said  I,  sneeringly. 

"We  went  out,  afterwards,  if  you-  mean  that^''*  said  he, 
quietly,  "  and  he  ran  me  through  here."  As  he  spoke,  he 
proceeded,  in  leisurely  fashion,  to  unbutton  the  wrist  of 
his  shirt,  and,  baring  his  arm  midway,  showed  me  a  pinkish 
cicatrice  of  considerable  extent.  "  It  went,  the  doctor  said, 
within  a  hair's-breadth  of  the  artery." 

I  made  no  comment  upon  this  story.  From  the  moment 
I  heard  it,  I  felt  as  though  I  was  travelling  with  the  late 
Mr.  Palmer,  of  Rugeley.  I  was  as  it  were  in  the  company 
of  one  who  never  would  have  scrupled  to  dispose  of  me,  at 
any  moment  and  in  any  way  that  his  fancy  suggested.  My 
code  respecting  the  duel  was  to  regard  it  as  the  last,  the 
Tery  last,  appeal  in  the  direst  emergency  of  dishonor.     The 

7 


98  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

men  who  regarded  it  as  the  settlement  of  slight  differences, 
I  deemed  assassins.  They  were  no  more  safe  associates  for 
peaceful  citizens  than  a  wolf  was  a  meet  companion  for  a 
flock  of  South  Downs.  The  more  I  ruminated  on  this  theme, 
the  more  indignant  grew  my  resentment,  and  the  question 
assumed  the  shape  of  asking,  ''Is  the  great  mass  of  man- 
kind to  be  hectored  and  bullied  by  some  half-dozen  scoun- 
drels with  skill  at  the  small  sword?  "  Little  knew  I  that  in 
the  ardor  of  my  indignation  I  had  uttered  these  words  aloud, 
—  spoken  them  with  an  earnest  vehemence,  looking  my 
fellow-traveller  full  in  the  face,  and  frowning. 

"Scoundrel  is  strong,  eh?"  said  he,  slowly;  ''''very 
strong !  " 

"  Who  spoke  of  a  scoundrel?  "  asked  I,  in  terror,  for  his 
confounded  calm,  cold  manner  made  my  very  blood  run 
chilled. 

"  Scoundrel  is  exactly  the  sort  of  word,"  added  he, 
deliberately,  ''that  once  uttered  can  only  be  expiated  in 
one  way.  You  do  not  give  me  the  impression  of  a  very 
bright  individual,  but  certainly  you  can  understand  so 
much." 

I  bowed  a  dignified  assent ;  my  heart  was  in  my  mouth 
as  I  did  it,  and  I  could  not,  to  save  my  life,  have  uttered 
a  word.  My  predicament  was  highly  perilous ;  and  all 
incurred  by  what?  —  that  passion  for  adventure  that  had 
led  me  forth  out  of  a  position  of  easy  obscurity  into  a 
world  of  strife,  conflict,  and  difficulty.  Why  had  I  not 
stayed  at  home?  What  foolish  infatuation  had  ever  sug- 
gested to  me  the  Quixotism  of  these  wanderings?  Blondel 
had  done  it  all.  Were  it  not  for  Blondel,  I  had  never  met 
Father  Dyke,  talked  myself  into  a  stupid  wager,  lost  what 
was  not  my  own ;  in  fact,  every  disaster  sprang  out  of  the 
one  before  it,  just  as  twig  adheres  to  branch  and  branch  to 
trunk.  Shall  I  make  a  clean  breast  of  it,  and  tell  my  com- 
panion my  whole  story?  Shall  I  explain  to  him  that  at 
heart  I  am  a  creature  of  the  kindliest  impulses  and  most 
generous  sympathies,  that  I  overflow  with  good  intentions 
towards  my  fellows,  and  that  the  problem  I  am  engaged  to 
solve  is  how  shall  I  dispense  most  happiness?  Will  he  com- 
prehend me  ?    Has  he  a  nature  to  appreciate  an  organization 


THE  PERILS  OF  MY  JOURNEY  TO   OSTEND.  99 

SO  fine  and  subtle  as  mine?  Will  he  understand  that  the 
fairy  who  endows  us  with  our  gifts  at  birth  is  reckoned  to 
be  munificent  when  she  withholds  only  one  high  quality,  and 
with  me  that  one  was  courage?  I  mean  the  coarse,  vulgar, 
combative  sort  of  courage  that  makes  men  prize-fighters 
and  bargees;  for  as  to  the  grander  species  of  courage,  I 
imagine  it  to  be  my  distinguishing  feature. 

The  question  is,  will  he  give  me  a  patient  hearing,  for 
my  theory  requires  nice  handling,  and  some  delicacy  in  the 
developing?  He  may  cut  me  short  in  his  bluff,  abrupt  way, 
and  say,  ' '  Out  with  it,  old  fellow,  you  want  to  sneak  out  of 
this  quarrel."  What  am  I  to  reply?  I  shall  rejoin:  ''  Sir, 
let  us  first  inquire  if  it  be  a  quarrel.  From  the  time  of 
Atrides  down  to  the  Crimean  war,  there  has  not  been  one 
instance  of  a  conflict  that  did  not  originate  in  misconceptions, 
and  has  not  been  prolonged  by  delusions !  Let  us  take  the 
Peloponnesian  war."  A  short  grunt  beside  me  here  cut 
short  my  argumentation.  He  was  fast,  sound  asleep,  and 
snoring  loudly.  My  thoughts  at  once  suggested  escape. 
Could  I  but  get  away,  I  fancied  I  could  find  space  in  the 
world,  never  again  to  see  myself  his  neighbor. 

The  train  was  whirling  along  between  deep  chalk  cuttings, 
and  at  a  furious  pace ;  to  leap  out  was  certain  death.  But 
was  not  the  same  fate  reserved  for  me  if  I  remained?  At 
last  I  heard  the  crank-crank  of  the  break  !  We  were  nearing 
a  station ;  the  earth  walls  at  either  side  receded ;  the  view 
opened  ;  a  spire  of  a  church,  trees,  houses  appeared ;  and,  our 
speed  diminishing,  we  came  bumping,  throbbing,  and  snort- 
ing into  a  little  trim  garden-like  spot,  that  at  the  moment 
seemed  to  me  a  paradise. 

I  beckoned  to  the  guard  to  let  me  out,  —  to  do  it  noise- 
lessly I  slipped  a  shilling  into  his  hand.  I  grasped  my 
knapsack  and  my  wrapper,  and  stole  furtively  away.  Oh, 
the  happiness  of  that  moment  as  the  door  closed  without 
awakening  him ! 

"Anywhere — any  carriage  —  what  class  you  please," 
muttered  I.  "  There,  yonder,"  broke  I  in,  hastily,  —  ''  where 
that  lady  in  mourning  has  just  got  in." 

"All  full  there,  sir,"  replied  the  man;  "step  in  here."; 
And  away  we  went. 


100  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

My  compartment  contained  but  one  passenger;  he  wore 
a  gold  band  round  his  oil-skin  cap,  and  seemed  the  cap- 
tain of  a  mail  steamer,  or  Admiralty  agent ;  he  merely 
glanced  at  me  as  I  came  in,  and  went  on  reading  his 
newspaper. 

"  Going  north,  I  suppose?"  said  he,  bluntly,  after  a  pause 
of  some  time.     ''  Going  to  Germany? " 

""  No  "  said  I,  rather  astonished  at  his  giving  me  this  des- 
tination.    "I'm  for  Brussels." 

"We  shall  have  a  rough  night  of  it,  outside;  glass  is 
falling  suddenly,  and  the  wind  has  chopped  round  to  the 
south'ard  and  east'ard  !  " 

"I'm  sorry  for  it,"  said  I.  "I'm  but  an  indifferent 
sailor." 

"  Well,  I  '11  tell  you  what  to  do :  just  turn  into  my  cabin, 
you  '11  have  it  all  to  yourself ;  lie  down  flat  on  your  back  the 
moment  you  get  aboard  ;  tell  the  steward  to  give  you  a 
strong  glass  of  brandy-and-water  —  the  captain's  brandy  say, 
for  it  is  rare  old  stuff,  and  a  perfect  cordial,  and  my  name 
ain't  Slidders  if  you  don't  sleep  all  the  way  across." 

♦I  really  had  no  words  for  such  unexpected  generosity; 
how  was  I  to  believe  my  ears  at  such  a  kind  proposal  of 
a  perfect  stranger?  Was  it  anything  in  my  appearance  that 
could  have  marked  me  out  as  an  object  for  these  attentions? 
"  I  don't  know  how  to  thank  you  enough,"  said  I,  in  con- 
fusion; "and  when  I  think  that  we  meet  now  for  the  first 
time  —  " 

"What  does  that  signify?"  said  he,  in  the  same  short 
way.  "  I've  met  pretty  nigh  all  of  5^ou  by  this  time.  I  've 
been  a  matter  of  eleven  years  on  this  station  !  " 

"Met  pretty  nigh  all  of  us!"  What  does  that  mean? 
Who  and  what  are  we?  He  can't  mean  the  Pottses,  for 
I  'm  the  first  who  ever  travelled  even  thus  far !  But  I  was 
not  given  leisure  to  follow  up  the  inquiry,  for  he  went  on  to 
say  how  in  all  that  time  of  eleven  years  he  had  never  seen 
threatenings  of  a  worse  night  than  that  before  us. 

"  Then  why  venture  out?"  asked  T,  timidly. 

"  They  must  have  the  bags  over  there ;  that's  the  reason," 
said  he,  curtly :  "  besides,  who's  to  say  when  he  won't  meet 
dirty  weather  at  sea,  —  one  takes  rough  and  smooth  in  this 
Ufe,  eh?" 


THE  PERILS  OF  MY  JOURNEY  TO  OSTEND.        101 

The  observation  was  not  remarkable  for  originality,  but  I 
liked  it.  I  like  the  reflective  turn,  no  matter  how  beaten  the 
path  it  may  select  for  its  exercise. 

"  It 's  a  short  trip,  —  some  five  or  six  hours  at  most,"  said 
he;  "but  it's  wonderful  what  ugly  weather  one  sees  in  it. 
It's  always  so  in  these  narrow  seas." 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  concurringly,  ''  these  petty  channels,  like 
the  small  events  of  our  life,  are  often  the  sources  of  our 
greatest  perils." 

He  gave  a  little  short  grunt :  it  might  have  been  assent, 
and  it  might  possibly  have  been  a  rough  protest  against 
further  moralizing;  at  all  events,  he  resumed  his  paper, 
and  read  away  without  speaking.  I  had  time  to  examine 
him  well,  now,  at  my  leisure,  and  there  was  nothing  in 
his  face  that  could  give  me  any  clew  to  the  generous 
nature  of  his  offer  to  me.  No,  he  was  a  hard-featured, 
weather-beaten,  rather  stern  sort  of  man,  verging  on 
fifty  seven  or  eight.  He  looked  neither  impulsive  nor  con- 
fiding, and  there  was  in  the  shape  of  his  mouth,  and  the 
curve  of  the  lines  around  it,  that  peremptory  and  almost 
cruel  decision  that  marks  the  sea-captain.  "  Well,"  thought 
I,  "  I  must  seek  the  explanation  of  the  riddle  elsewhere. 
The  secret  sympathy  that  moved  him  must  have  its  root 
in  me;  and,  after  all,  history  has  never  told  that  the  dol- 
phins who  were  charmed  by  Orpheus  were  peculiar  dol- 
phins, with  any  special  fondness  for  music,  or  an  ear  for 
melody;  they  were  ordinary  creatures  of  the  deep,  —  fish, 
so  to  say,  taken  ex-medio  acervo  of  delphinity.  The  marvel 
of  their  captivation  lay  in  the  spell  of  the  enchanter.  It  was 
the  thrilling  touch  of  his  fingers,  the  tasteful  elegance  of  his 
style,  the  voluptuous  inthralment  of  the  sounds  he  awakened, 
that  worked  the  miracle.  This  man  of  the  sea  has,  therefore, 
been  struck  by  something  in  my  air,  bearing,  or  address  ;  one 
of  those  mysterious  sympathies  which  are  the  hidden  motives 
that  guide  half  our  lives,  had  drawn  him  to  me,  and  he  said 
to  himself,  '  I  like  that  man.  I  have  met  more  pretentious 
people,  I  have  seen  persons  who  desire  to  dominate  and  im- 
pose more  than  he,  but  there  is  that  about  him  that  some- 
how appeals  to  the  instincts  of  my  nature,  and  I  can  say  I 
feel  myself  his  friend  already.' " 


102  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

As  I  worked  at  my  little  theory,  with  all  the  ingenuity  I 
knew  how  to  employ  on  such  occasions,  I  perceived  that  he 
had  put  up  his  newspaper,  and  was  gathering  together,  in  old 
traveller  fashion,  the  odds  and  ends  of  his  baggage. 

''  Here  we  are,"  said  he,  as  we  glided  into  the  station, 
"  and  in  capital  time  too.  Don't  trouble  yourself  about 
your  traps.  My  steward  will  be  here  presently,  and  take 
all  your  things  down  to  the  packet  along  with  my  own. 
Our  steam  is  up;  so  lose  no  time  in  getting  aboard." 

I  had  never  less  inclination  to  play  the  loiterer.  The 
odious  attache  was  still  in  my  neighborhood,  and  until  I 
had  got  clear  out  of  his  reach  I  felt  anything  but  security. 
He,  I  remembered,  was  for  Calais,  so  that,  by  taking  the 
Ostend  boat,  I  was  at  once  separating  myself  from  his 
detestable  companionship.  I  not  only,  therefore,  accepted 
the  captain's  offer  to  leave  all  my  effects  to  the  charge  of 
the  steward;  but  no  sooner  had  the  train  stopped,  than  I 
sprang  out,  hastened  through  the  thronged  station,  and 
made  at  all   my  speed  for  the  harbor. 

Is  it  to  increase  the  impediments  to  quitting  one's  country, 
and,  by  interposing  difficulties,  to  give  the  exile  additional 
occasion  to  think  twice  about  expatriating  himself,  that  the 
way  from  the  railroad  to  the  dock  at  Dover  is  made  so  circui- 
tous and  almost  impossible  to  discover  ?  Are  these  obstacles 
invented  in  the  spirit  of  those  official  details  which  make  banns 
on  the  church-door,  and  a  delay  of  three  weeks  precede  a  mar- 
riage, as  though  to  say.  Halt,  impetuous  youth,  and  bethink 
you  whither  you  are  going  ?  Are  these  amongst  the  wise  pre- 
cautions of  a  truly  paternal  rule?  If  so,  they  must  occasion- 
ally even  transcend  the  original  intention,  for  when  I  reached 
the  pier,  the  packet  had  already  begun  to  move,  and  it  was 
only  by  a  vigorous  leap  that  I  gained  the  paddle-box,  and 
thus  scrambled  on  board. 

*'  Like  every  one  of  you,"  growled  out  my  weather-beaten 
friend ;   ''  always  within  an  ace  of  being  left  behind." 

*' Every  one  of  us!"  muttered  I.  *'What  can  he  have 
known  of  the  Potts  family,  that  he  dares  to  describe  us  thus 
characteristically?  And  who  ever  presumed  to  call  us  loi- 
terers or  sluggards  ?  " 

'*  Step  down  below,  as  I  told  you,"  whispered  he.     "  It 's 


THE  PERILS  OF  MY  JOURNEY  TO  OSTEND.        103 

a  dirty  night,  and  we  shall  have  bucketing  weather  outside." 
And  with  this  friendly  hint  I  at  once  complied,  and  stole 
down  the  ladder.  ''Show  that  gentleman  into  my  state- 
room, steward,"  called  he  out  from  above.  "  Mix  him 
something  warm,  and  look  after  him." 

"  Ay,  ay,  sir,"  was  the  brisk  reply,  as  the  bustling  man 
of  brandy  and  basins  threw  open  a  small  door,  and  ushered 
me  into  a  little  den,  with  a  mingled  odor  of  tar,  Stilton,  and 
wet  mackintoshes.  "  All  to  yourself  here,  sii',"  said  he,  and 
vanished. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A   JEALOUS   HUSBAND. 

I  TAKE  it  for  granted  that  all  special ''  charities  "  have  had 
their  origin  in  some  specific  sufifering.  At  least,  I  can  aver 
that  my  first  thought  on  landing  at  Ostend  was,  ''Why  has 
no  great  philanthropist  thought  of  establishing  such  an  insti- 
tution as  a  Refuge  for  the  Sea-sick  ?  "  I  declare  this  publicly, 
that  if  I  ever  become  rich,  —  a  consummation  which,  looking 
to  the  general  gentleness  of  my  instincts,  the  wide  benevolence 
of  my  nature,  and  the  kindliness  of  my  temperament,  man- 
kind might  well  rejoice  at,  —  if,  I  repeat,  I  ever  become  rich, 
one  of  the  first  uses  of  my  affluence  will  be  to  endow  such  an 
establishment.  I  will  place  it  in  some  one  of  our  popular 
ports,  say  Southampton.  Surrounded  with  all  the  charms  of 
inland  scenery,  rich  in  every  rustic  association,  the  patient 
shall  never  be  reminded  of  the  scene  of  his  late  sufferings. 
A  velvety  turf  to  stroll  on,  with  a  leafy  shade  above  his 
head,  the  mellow  lowing  of  cattle  in  his  ears,  and  the  fra- 
grant odors  of  meadow-sweet  and  hawthorn  around,  I  would 
recall  the  sufferer  from  the  dread  memories  of  the  slippery 
deck,  the  sea-washed  stairs,  or  the  sleepy  state-room.  For 
the  rattle  of  cordage,  and  the  hoarse  trumpet  of  the  skipper, 
I  would  substitute  the  song  of  the  thrush  or  the  blackbird ; 
and,  instead  of  the  thrice  odious  steward  and  his  basin,  I 
would  have  trim  maidens  of  pleasing  aspect  to  serve  him 
with  syllabubs.  I  will  not  go  on  to  say  the  hundred  devices 
I  would  employ  to  cheat  memory  out  of  a  gloomy  record,  for 
I  treasure  the  hope  that  I  may  yet  live  to  carry  out  my 
theory,  and  have  a  copyright  in  my  invention. 

It  was  with  sentiments  deeply  tinctured  by  the  above  that 
I  tottered,  rather  than  walked,  towards  the  "  Hotel  Royal." 
It  was  a  bright  moonlight  night,  and,  as  if  in  mockery  of  the 


A  JEALOUS  HUSBAND.  105 

weather  outside,  as  still  and  calm  as  might  be.  Many  a  pic- 
turesque effect  of  light  and  shade  met  me  as  I  went :  quaint 
old  gables  flaring  in  a  strong  flood  of  moonlight,  showed  out- 
lines the  strangest  and  oddest;  twinkling  lamps  shone  out 
of  tall,  dark-sided,  old  houses,  from  which  strains  of  music 
came  plaintively  enough  in  the  night  air ;  the  sounds  of  a 
prolonged  revel  rose  loudly  out  of  that  deep-pillared  chateau- 
like building  in  the  Place,  and  in  the  quiet  alley  adjoining,  I 
could  catch  the  low  song  of  a  mother  as  she  tried  to  sing  her 
baby  to  sleep.  It  was  all  human  in  every  touch  and  strain 
of  it.  And  did  I  not  drink  it  in  with  rapture?  Was  it  not 
in  a  transport  of  gratitude  that  I  thanked  Fortune  for  once 
again  restoring  me  to  land?  "  O  Earth,  Earth!  "  says  the 
Greek  poet,  '*  how  art  thou  interwoven  with  that  nature  that 
first  came  from  thee !  "  Thus  musing,  I  reached  the  inn, 
where,  though  the  hour  was  a  late  one,  the  household  was  all 
active  and  astir. 

''  Many  passengers  arrived,  waiter?"  said  I,  in  the  easy, 
careless  voice  of  one  who  would  not  own  to  sea-sickness. 

*' Very  few,  sir;  the  severe  weather  has  deterred  several 
from  venturing  across." 

*' Any  ladies?" 

"  Only  one,  sir;  and,  poor  thing!  she  seems  to  have  suf- 
fered fearfully.  She  had  to  be  carried  from  the  boat,  and 
when  she  tried  to  walk  upstairs,  she  almost  fainted.  There 
might  have  been  some  agitation,  however,  in  that,  for  she 
expected  some  one  to  have  met  her  here  ;  and  when  she  heard 
that  he  had  not  arrived,  she  was  completely  overcome." 

''  Very  sad,  indeed,"  said  I,  examining  the  carte  for 
supper. 

''Oh  yes,  sir;  and  being  in  deep  mourning,  too,  and  a 
stranger  away  for  the  first  time  from  her  country." 

I  started,  and  felt  my  heart  bounding  against  my  side. 

"  What  was  it  you  said  about  deep  mourning,  and  being 
young  and  beautiful?"  asked  I,  eagerly. 

"Only  the  mourning,  sir,  —  it  was  only  the  mourning  I 
mentioned  ;  for  she  kept  her  veil  close  down,  and  would  not 
suffer  her  face  to  be  seen." 

' '  Bashful  as  beautiful !  modest  as  she  is  fair !  "  muttered 
I.     "  Do  you  happen  to  know  whither  she  is  going?" 


106  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

**  Yes,  sir;  her  luggage  is  marked  '  Brussels.'  " 

*' It  is  she!  It  is  herself!"  cried  I,  in  rapture,  as  I 
turned  away,  lest  the  fellow  should  notice  my  emotion. 
''When  does  she  leave  this?" 

''  She  seems  doubtful,  sir;  she  told  the  landlady  that  she 
is  going  to  reside  at  Brussels ;  but  never  having  been  abroad 
before,  she  is  naturally  timid  about  travelling  even  so  far 
alone." 

''Gentle  creature!  why  should  she  be  exposed  to  such 
hazards?  Bring  me  some  of  this  fricandeau  with  chiccory, 
waiter,  and  a  pint  of  Beaune ;  fried  potatoes  too.  —  Would 
that  I  could  tell  her  to  fear  nothing!  "  thought  I.  "  Would 
that  I  could  just  whisper,  '  Potts  is  here ;  Potts  watches  over 
you;  Potts  will  be  that  friend,  that  brother,  that  should 
have  come  to  meet  you !  Sleep  soundly,  and  with  a  head  at 
ease.  You  are  neither  friendless  nor  forsaken  !  '  "  I  feel  I 
must  be  naturally  a  creature  of  benevolent  instincts ;  for  I 
am  never  so  truly  happy  as  when  engaged  in  a  work  of  kind- 
ness. Let  me  but  suggest  to  myself  a  labor  of  charity, 
some  occasion  to  sorrow  with  the  afflicted,  to  rally  the  weak- 
hearted,  and  to  succor  the  wretched,  and  I  am  infinitely 
more  delighted  than  by  all  the  blandishment  of  what  is 
called  "  society."  Men  have  their  allotted  parts  in  life,  just 
as  certain  fruits  are  meet  for  certain  climates.  Mine  was 
the  grand  comforting  line.  Nature  meant  me  for  a  consoler. 
I  have  none  of  those  impulsive  temperaments  which  make 
what  are  called  jolly  fellows.  I  have  no  taste  for  those 
excesses  which  go  by  the  name  of  conviviality.  I  can,  it  is 
true,  be  witty,  anecdotic,  and  agreeable ;  I  can  spice  conver- 
sation with  epigram,  and  illustrate  argument  by  apt  example ; 
but  my  forte  is  tenderness. 

"  Is  not  this  veal  a  little  tough,  waiter?  "  said  I,  in  gentle 
remonstrance. 

"Monsieur  is  right,"  said  he,  bowing;  "but  if  a  morsel 
of  cold  pheasant  would  be  acceptable — mademoiselle,  the 
lady  in  mourning,  has  just  taken  a  wing  of  it  —  " 

"Bring  it  directly. — Oh,  ecstasy  of  ecstasies!  We  are 
then,  as  it  were,  supping  together  —  served  from  the  same 
dish  !  —  May  I  have  the  honor  ?  "  said  I,  filling  out  a  glass 
of  wine  and  bowing  respectfully  and  with  an  air  of  deep 


A  JEALOUS  HUSBAND.  107 

devotion  across  the  table.  The  pheasant  was  exquisite,  and 
I  ate  with  an  epicurean  enjoyment.  I  called  for  another 
pint  of  Beaune  too.  It  was  an  occasion  for  some  indul- 
gence, and  I  could  not  deny  myself.  No  sooner  had  the 
waiter  left  me  alone,  than  I  burst  into  an  expansive  acknowl- 
edgment of  my  happiness.  "Yes,  Potts,"  said  I,  "you 
are  richer  in  that  temperament  of  yours  than  if  you  owned 
half  California.  That  boundless  wealth  of  good  intentions 
is  a  well  no  pumping  can  exhaust.  Go  on  doing  imaginary 
good  forever.  You  are  never  the  poorer  for  all  the  orphans 
you  support,  all  the  distresses  you  relieve.  You  rescue  the 
mariner  from  shipwreck  without  wetting  your  feet.  You 
charge  at  the  head  of  a  squadron  without  the  peril  of  a 
scratch.    All  blessed  be  the  gift  which  can  do  these  things  I  " 

You  call  these  delusions;  but  is  it  a  delusion  to  be  a 
king,  to  deliver  a  people  from  slavery,  to  carry  succor  to 
a  drowning  crew  ?  I  have  done  all  of  these ;  that  is,  I  have 
gone  through  every  changeful  mood  of  hope  and  fear  that 
accompanies  these  actions,  sipping  my  glass  of  Beaune 
between  whiles. 

When  I  found  myself  in  my  bedroom  I  had  no  inclination 
for  sleep ;  1  was  in  a  mood  of  enjoyment  too  elevated  for 
mere  repose.  It  was  so  delightful  to  be  no  longer  at  sea,  to 
feel  rescued  from  the  miseries  of  the  rocking  ship  and  the 
reeking  cabin,  that  I  would  not  lose  the  rapture  of  forgetful- 
ness.  I  was  in  the  mood  for  great  things,  too,  if  I  only 
knew  what  they  were  to  be.  "  Ah !  "  thought  I,  suddenly, 
"  I  will  write  to  her.  She  shall  know  that  she  is  not  the 
friendless  and  forsaken  creature  that  she  deems  herself ;  she 
shall  hear  that,  though  separated  from  home,  friends,  and 
country,  there  is  one  near  to  watch  over  and  protect  her,  and 
that  Potts  devotes  himself  to  her  service."  I  opened  my 
desk,  and  in  all  the  impatience  of  my  ardor  began :  — 

" '  Dear  Madam,*  —  Quaere :  Ought  I  to  say  *  dear  '  ?  We  are 
not  acquainted,  and  can  I  presume  upon  the  formula  that  implies 
acquaintanceship  ?  No.  I  must  omit  '  dear ; '  and  then  '  madam  ' 
looks  fearfully  stern  and  rigid,  particularly  when  addressed  to  a 
young  unmarried  lady ;  she  is  certainly  not  '  madam  '  yet,  surely.  I 
can't  begin  *  miss.'  What  a  language  is  ours  !  How  cruelly  fatal  to 
all  the  tenderer  emotions  is  a  dialect  so  matter-of-fact  and  formal  1 


108  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

If  I  could  only  start  with  '  Gentilissima  Signora,'  how  I  could  get  on  \ 
What  an  impulse  would  the  words  lend  me  !  What  '  way  on  me  * 
would  they  impart  for  what  was  to  follow  !  In  our  cast-metal  tongue 
there  is  nothing  for  it  but  the  third  person :  '  The  undersigned  has 
the  honor/  &c.,  &c.  This  is  chilling  —  it  is  positively  repulsive. 
Let  me  see,  will  this  do?  — 

"  '  The  gentleman  wlio  was  fortunate  enough  to  render  you  some 
trivial  service  at  the  Milf ord  station  two  days  ago.  having  accidentally 
learned  that  you  are  here  and  unprovided  with  a  protector,  in  all 
humility  offers  himself  to  afford  you  every  aid  and  counsel  in  his 
power.  No  stranger  to  the  touching  interest  of  your  life,  deeply 
sensible  of  the  delicacy  that  should  surround  your  steps,  if  you  deign 
to  accept  his  devoted  services,  he  will  endeavor  to  prove  himself,  by 
every  sentiment  of  respect,  your  most  faithful,  most  humble,  and 
most  grateful  servant. 

"  '  P.  S.     His  name  is  Potts.* 

"  Yes,  all  will  do  but  the  confounded  postscript.  What 
a  terrible  bathos,  —  '  His  name  is  Potts  ' !  What  if  I  say, 
*  One  word  of  reply  is  requested,  addressed  to  Algernon 
Sydney  Pottinger,  at  this  hotel'?" 

I  made  a  great  many  copies  of  this  document,  always 
changing  something  as  I  went.  I  felt  the  importance  of 
every  word,  and  fastidiously  pondered  over  each  expression 
I  employed.  The  bright  sun  of  morning  broke  in  at  last 
upon  my  labors  and  found  me  still  at  my  desk,  still  compos- 
ing.    All  done,  I  lay  down  and  slept  soundly. 

"Is  she  gone,  waiter?"  said  I,  as  he  entered  my  room 
with  hot  water.     "Is  she  gone?" 

"  Who,  sir?  "  asked  he,  in  some  astonishment. 

"The  lady  in  black,  who  came  over  in  the  last  mail- 
packet  from  Dover;  the  young  lady  in  deep  mourning,  who 
arrived  all  alone." 

"No,  sir.  She  has  sent  all  round  the  hotels  this  morning 
to  inquire  after  some  one  who  was  to  have  met  her  here, 
but,  apparently,  without  success." 

"Give  her  this;  place  it  in  her  own  hand,  and,  as  you 
are  leaving  the  room,  say,  in  a  gentle  voice :  '  Is  there  an 
answer,  mademoiselle  ?  '     You  understand  ?  " 

"Well,  I  believe  I  do,"  said  he,  significantly,  as  he  slyly 
pocketed  the  half-Napoleon  fee  I  had  tendered  for  his 
acceptance. 


A  JEALOUS  HUSBAND.  109 

Now  the  fellow  had  thrown  into  his  countenance  —  a 
painfully  astute  and  cunning  face  it  was  —  one  of  those  ex- 
pressive looks  which  actually  made  me  shudder.  It  seemed 
to  say,  "This  is  a  conspiracy,  and  we  are  both  in  it." 

''You  are  not  for  a  moment  to  suppose,"  said  I,  hurriedly, 
*'that  there  is  one  syllable  in  that  letter  which  could  com- 
promise me,  or  wound  the  delicacy  of  the  most  susceptible." 

"I  am  convinced  that  monsieur  has  written  it  with  most 
consummate  skill,"  said  he,  with  a  supercilious  grin,  and 
left  the  room. 

How  I  detest  the  familiarity  of  a  foreign  waiter!  The 
fellows  cannot  respond  to  the  most  ordinary  question  with- 
out an  affectation  of  showing  off  their  immense  acuteness 
and  knowledge  of  life.  It  is  their  eternal  boast  how  they 
read  people,  and  with  what  an  instinctive  subtlety  they  can 
decipher  all  the  various  characters  that  pass  before  them. 
Now  this  impertinent  lackey,  who  is  to  say  what  has  he  not 
imputed  to  me?  Utterly  incapable  as  such  a  creature  must 
necessarily  be  of  the  higher  and  nobler  motives  that  sway 
men  of  my  order,  he  will  doubtless  have  ascribed  to  me 
the  most  base  and  degenerate  motives. 

I  was  wrong  in  speaking  one  word  to  the  fellow.  I  might 
have  said,  ''Take  that  note  to  Number  Fourteen,  and  ask  if 
there  be  an  answer; "  or,  better  still,  if  I  had  never  written 
at  all,  but  merely  sent  in  my  card  to  ask  if  the  lady  would 
vouchsafe  to  accord  me  an  audience  of  a  few  minutes.  Yes, 
such  would  have  been  the  discreet  course ;  and  then  I  might 
have  trusted  to  my  manner,  my  tact,  and  a  certain  something 
in  my  general  bearing,  to  have  brought  the  matter  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue.  While  I  thus  meditated,  the  waiter  re-entered 
the  room,  and,  cautiously  closing  the  door,  approached  me 
with  an  ostentatious  pretence  of  secrecy  and  mystery. 

"I  have  given  her  the  letter,"  said  he,  in  a  whisper. 

"Speak  up!  "  said  I,  severely;  "what  answer  has  the  lady 
given?" 

"I  think  you  '11  get  the  answer  presently,"  said  he,  with  a 
sort  of  grin  that  actually  thrilled  through  me. 

"You  may  leave  the  room,"  said  I,  with  dignity,  for  I 
saw  how  the  fellow  was  actually  revelling  in  the  enjoyment 
of  my  confusion. 


110  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

''They  were  reading  it  over  together  for  the  third  time 
when  I  came  away,"  said  he,  with  a  most  peculiar  look. 

''Whom  do  you  mean?  Who  are  they  that  you  speak  of?  " 

"The  gentleman  that  she  was  expecting.  He  came  by 
the  9.40  train  from  Brussels.  Just  in  time  for  your  note." 
As  the  wretch  uttered  these  words,  a  violent  ringing  of  bells 
resounded  along  the  corridor,  and  he  rushed  out  without 
waiting  for  more. 

I  turned  in  haste  to  my  note-book ;  various  copies  of  my 
letter  were  there,  and  I  was  eager  to  recall  the  expressions 
I  had  employed  in  addressing  her.  Good  heavens!  what 
had  I  really  written?  Here  were  scraps  of  all  sorts  of  ab- 
surdity; poetry,  too!  verses  to  the  "Fair  Victim  of  a  Recent 
War,"  with  a  number  of  rhymes  for  the  last  word,  such  as 
"low,"  "snow,"  "mow,"  &c.,  —  all  evidences  of  composition 
under  difficulty. 

While  I  turned  over  these  rough  copies,  the  door  opened, 
and  a  large,  red-faced,  stern-looking  man,  in  a  suit  of  red- 
brown  tweed,  and  with  a  heavy  stick  in  his  hand,  entered; 
he  closed  the  door  leisurely  after  him,  and  I  half  thought 
that  I  saw  him  also  turn  the  key  in  the  lock.  He  advanced 
towards  me  with  a  deliberate  step,  and,  in  a  voice  measured 
as  his  gait,  said,  — 

"I  am  Mr.  Jopplyn,  sir, —  I  am  Mr.  Christopher  Jopplyn." 

"I  am  charmed  to  hear  it,  sir,"  said  I,  in  some  confusion, 
for,  without  the  vaguest  conception  of  wherefore,  I  sus- 
pected lowering  weather  ahead. 

"May  I  offer  you  a  chair,  Mr.  Jopplyn?  Won*t  you  be 
seated  ?  We  are  going  to  have  a  lovely  day,  I  fancy,  —  a 
great  change  after  yesterday." 

"Your  name,  sir,"  said  he,  in  the  same  solemnity  as 
before,  —  "your  name  I  apprehend  to  be  Porringer?  " 

"Pottinger,  if  you  permit  me;  Pottinger,  not  Porringer." 

"It  shall  be  as  you  say,  sir;  I  am  indifferent  what  you 
call  yourself."  He  heaved  something  that  sounded  like  a 
hoarse  sigh,  and  proceeded:  "I  have  come  to  settle  a  small 
account  that  stands  between  us.  Is  that  document  your 
writing?"  As  he  said  this,  he  drew,  rather  theatrically, 
from  his  breast-pocket  the  letter  I  had  just  written,  and 
extended  it  towards  me.     "I  ask,  sir,  —  and  I  mean  you  to 


A  JEALOUS  HUSBAND.  Ill 

understand  that  I  will  suffer  no  prevarication,  —  is  that 
document  in  your  writing  ?  " 

I  trembled  all  over  as  I  took  it,  and  for  an  instant  I  deter- 
mined to  disavow  it;  but  in  the  same  brief  space  I  be- 
thought me  that  my  denial  would  be  in  vain.  I  then  tried  to 
look  boldly,  and  brazen  it  out ;  I  fancied  to  laugh  it  off  as 
a  mere  pleasantry,  and,  failing  in  courage  for  each  of  these, 
I  essayed,  as  a  last  resource,  the  argumentative  and  discus- 
sional  line,  and  said,  — 

"If  you  will  favor  me  with  an  indulgent  hearing  for  a  few 
minutes,  Mr.  Jopplyn,  I  trust  to  explain  to  your  complete 
satisfaction  the  circumstances  of  that  epistle." 

"Take  five,  sir, — five,"  said  he,  laying  a  ponderous 
silver  watch  on  the  table  as  he  spoke,  and  pointing  to  the 
minute-hand. 

"Really,  sir,"  said  I,  stung  by  the  peremptory  and  dicta- 
torial tone  he  assumed,  "I  have  yet  to  learn  that  intercourse 
between  gentlemen  is  to  be  regulated  by  clockwork,  not  to 
say  that  I  have  to  inquire  by  what  right  you  ask  me  for  this 
explanation." 

"One  minute  gone,"  said  he,  solemnly. 

"I  don't  care  if  there  were  fifty,"  said  I,  passionately. 
"I  disclaim  all  pretension  of  a  perfect  stranger  to  obtrude 
himself  upon  me,  and  by  the  mere  assumption  of  a  pompous 
manner  and  an  imposing  air,  to  inquire  into  my  private 
affairs." 

"There  are  two!  "  said  he,  with  the  same  solemnity. 

"Who  is  Mr.  Jopplyn,  —  what  is  he  to  me?  "  cried  I,  in 
increased  excitement,  "  that  he  presents  himself  in  my  apart- 
ment like  a  commissary  of  police?  Do  you  imagine,  sir, 
because  I  am  a  young  man,  that  this  —  this  —  impertinence  " 
—  Lord,  what  a  gulp  it  cost  me!  —  "is  to  pass  unpunished? 
Do  j^ou  fancy  that  a  red  beard  and  a  heavy  walking-cane 
are  to  strike  terror  into  me?  You  may  think,  perhaps,  that 
I  am  unarmed  —  " 

"Three!  "  said  he,  with  a  bang  of  his  stick  on  the  floor 
that  made  me  actually  jump  with  the  stick. 

"Leave  the  room,  sir,"  said  I;  "it  is  my  pleasure  to  be 
alone,  —  the  apartment  is  mine,  —  I  am  the  proprietor  here. 
A  very  little  sense  of  delicacy,  a  very  small  amount  of  good 


112  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

breeding,  might  show  you,  that  when  a  gentleman  declines 
to  receive  company,  when  he  shows  himself  indisposed  to 
the  society  of  strangers  —  " 

"One  minute  more,  now,"  said  he,  in  a  low  growl;  while 
he  proceeded  to  button  up  his  coat  to  the  neck,  and  make 
preparation  for  some  coming  event. 

My  heart  was  in  my  mouth ;  I  gave  a  glance  at  the  win- 
dow; it  was  the  third  story,  and  a  leap  out  would  have  been 
fatal.  What  would  I  not  have  given  for  one  of  those 
weapons  I  had  so  proudly  proclaimed  myself  possessed  of! 
There  was  not  even  a  poker  in  the  room.  I  made  a  spring 
at  the  bell-rope,  and  before  he  could  interpose,  gave  one 
pull  that,  though  it  brought  down  the  cord,  resounded 
through  the  whole  house. 

"Time  is  up.  Porringer,"  said  he,  slowly,  as  he  replaced 
the  watch  in  his  pocket,  and  grasped  his  murderous-looking 
cane. 

There  was  a  large  table  in  the  room,  and  I  intrenched 
myself  at  once  behind  this,  armed  with  a  light  cane  chair, 
while  I  screamed  murder  in  every  language  I  could  com- 
mand. Failing  to  reach  me  across  the  table,  my  assailant 
tried  to  dodge  me  by  false  starts,  now  at  this  side,  now 
at  that.  Though  a  large  fleshy  man,  he  was  not  inactive, 
and  it  required  all  my  quickness  to  escape  him.  These 
manoeuvres  being  unsuccessful,  he  very  quickly  placed  a 
chair  beside  the  table  and  mounted  upon  it.  I  now  hurled 
my  chair  at  him ;  he  warded  off  the  blow  and  rushed  on ; 
with  one  spring  I  bounded  under  the  table,  reappearing  at 
the  opposite  side  just  as  he  had  reached  mine.  These  tac- 
tics we  now  pursued  for  several  minutes,  when  my  enemy 
suddenly  changed  his  attack,  and,  descending  from  the  table, 
he  turned  it  on  edge ;  the  effort  required  strength.  I  seized 
the  moment  and  reached  the  door;  I  tore  it  open  in  some 
fashion,  gained  the  stairs,  the  court,  the  streets,  and  ran 
ever  onward  with  the  wildness  of  one  possessed  with  no 
time  for  thought,  nor  any  knowledge  to  guide;  I  turned  left 
and  right,  choosing  only  the  narrowest  lanes  that  presented 
themselves,  and  at  last  came  to  a  dead  halt  at  an  open  draw- 
bridge, where  a  crowd  stood  waiting  to  pass. 

"How  is  this?     What's  all  the  hurry  for?     Where  are 


=r  i 


^ 


//     ^     OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

^LIFORHNfe* 


A  JEALOUS  HUSBAND.  113 

you  running  this  fashion?  "  cried  a  well-known  voice.     I 
turned,  and  saw  the  skipper  of  the  packet. 

''Are  you  armed?  Can  you  defend  me?"  cried  I,  in 
terror;  "or  shall  I  leap  in  and  swim  for  it?  " 

"I'll  stand  by  you.  Don't  be  afraid,  man,"  said  he, 
drawing  my  arm  within  his;  "no  one  shall  harm  you. 
Were  they  robbers  ?  " 

"No,  worse,  —  assassins!"  said  1,  gulping,  for  I  was 
heartily  ashamed  of  my  terror,  and  determined  to  show 
"cause  why"  in  the  plural. 

"Come  in  here,  and  have  a  glass  of  something,"  said  he, 
turning  into  a  little  cabaret,  with  whose  penetralia  he  seemed 
not  unfamiliar.  "You  're  all  safe  here,"  said  he,  as  he  closed 
the  door  of  a  little  room.  "Let 's  hear  all  about  it,  though 
I  half  guess  the  story  already." 

I  had  no  difficulty  in  perceiving,  from  my  companion's 
manner,  that  he  believed  some  sudden  shock  had  shaken 
my  faculties,  and  that  my  intellects  were  for  the  time  de- 
ranged; nor  was  it  very  easy  for  me  to  assume  sufficient 
calm  to  disabuse  him  of  his  error,  and  assert  my  own 
perfect  coherency.  "You  have  been  out  for  a  lark,"  said  he, 
laughingly.  "I  see  it  all.  You  have  been  at  one  of  those 
tea-gardens  and  got  into  a  row  with  some  stout  Fleming. 
All  the  young  English  go  through  that  sort  of  thing.  Ain't 
I  right?" 

"  Never  more  mistaken  in  your  life.  Captain.  My  conduct 
since  I  landed  would  not  discredit  a  canon  of  St.  Paul's. 
In  fact,  all  my  habits,  my  tastes,  my  instincts,  are  averse  to 
•every  sort  of  junketing.  I  am  essentially  retiring,  sensitive, 
and,  if  you  will,  over-fastidious  in  my  choice  of  associates. 
My  story  is  simply  this."  My  reader  will  readily  excuse 
my  repeating  what  is  already  known  to  him.  It  is  enough 
if  I  say  that  the  captain,  although  anything  rather  than 
mirthful,  held  his  hand  several  times  over  his  face,  and  once 
laughed  out  loudly  and  boisterously. 

"You  don't  say  it  was  Christy  Jopplyn,  do  you?"  said 
he,  at  last.     "You  don't  tell  me  it  was  Jopplyn?  " 

"The  fellow  called  himself  Jopplyn,  but  I  know  nothing 
of  him  beyond  that." 

"Why,  he's  mad  jealous  about  that  wife  of  his;  that  little 

8 


114  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

woman  with  the  corkscrew  curls,  and  the  scorbutic  face, 
that  came  over  with  us.  Oh !  you  did  not  see  her  aboard, 
you  went  below  at  once,  I  remember;  but  there  was  she,  in 
her  black  ugly,  and  her  old  crape  shawl  —  " 

''In  mourning?" 

''Yes.  Always  in  mourning.  She  never  wears  anything 
else,  though  Christy  goes  about  in  colors,  and  not  particular 
as  to  the  tint,  either." 

There  came  a  cold  perspiration  over  me  as  I  heard  these 
words,  and  perceived  that  my  profifer  of  devotion  had  been 
addressed  to  a  married  woman,  and  the  wife  of  the  "  most 
jealous  man  in  Europe." 

"  And  who  is  this  Jopplyn  ?  "  asked  I,  haughtily,  and  in 
all  the  proud  confidence  of  my  present  security. 

"He's  a  railway  contractor,  — a  shrewd  sort  of  fellow, 
with  plenty  of  money,  and  a  good  head  on  his  shoulders; 
sensible  on  every  point  except  his  jealousy." 

"The  man  must  be  an  idiot,"  said  I,  indignantly,  "to 
rush  indiscriminately  about  the  world  with  accusations  of 
this  kind.  Who  wants  to  supplant  him?  Who  seeks  to  rob 
him  of  the  affections  of  his  wife?  " 

"That's  all  very  well  and  very  specious,"  said  he, 
gravely;  "but  if  men  will  deliberately  set  themselves  down 
at  a  writing-table,  hammering  their  brains  for  fine  senti- 
ments, and  toiling  to  find  grand  expressions  for  their  pas- 
sion, it  does  not  require  that  a  husband  should  be  as  jealous 
as  Christy  Jopplyn  to  take  it  badly.  I  don't  think  I  'm  a 
rash  or  a  hasty  man,  but  I  know  what  I  'd  do  in  such  a 
circumstance." 

"And  pray,  what  would  you  do?"  said  I,  half  imper- 
tinently. 

"I  'd  just  say,  '  Look  here,  young  gent,  is  this  balderdash 
here  your  hand?  Well,  now,  eat  your  words.  Yes,  eat 
them.  I  mean  what  I  say.  Eat  up  that  letter,  seal  and 
all,  or,  by  my  oath,  I  '11  break  every  bone  in  your  skin ! '  " 

"It  is  exactly  what  I  intend,"  cried  a  voice,  hoarse  with 
passion;  and  Jopplyn  himself  sprang  into  the  room,  and 
dashed  at  me. 

The  skipper  was  a  most  powerful  man,  but  it  required 
all  his  strength,  and  not  very  gingerly  exercised  either,  to 


A  JEALOUS  HUSBAND.  115 

hold  off  my  enraged  adversary.  "Will  you  be  quiet, 
Christy?"  cried  he,  holding  him  by  the  throat.  "Will  you 
just  be  quiet  for  one  instant,  or  must  I  knock  you  down  ?  " 

"Do!  do!  by  all  means,"  muttered  I;  for  I  thought  if  he 
were  once  on  the  ground,  I  could  finish  him  off  with  a  large 
pewter  measure  that  stood  on  the  table. 

With  a  rough  shake  the  skipper  had  at  last  convinced 
the  other  that  resistance  was  useless,  and  induced  him  to 
consent  to  a  parley. 

"Let  him  only  tell  you"  said  he,  "what  he  has  told  me, 
Christy." 

"Don't  strike,  but  hear  me,"  cried  I;  and  safe  in  my 
stockade  behind  the  skipper,  I  recounted  my  mistake. 

"And  you  believe  all  this?  "  asked  Jopplyn  of  the  skipper, 
when  I  had  finished. 

"Believe  it,  — I  should  think  I  do!  I  have  known  him 
since  he  was  a  child  that  high,  and  I  '11  answer  for  his  good 
conduct  and  behavior." 

Heaven  bless  you  for  that  bail  bond,  though  endorsed  in 
a  lie,  honest  ship-captain !  and  I  only  hope  I  may  live  to 
requite  you  for  it. 

Jopplyn  was  appeased ;  but  it  was  the  suppressed  wrath 
of  a  brown  bear  rather  than  the  vanquished  anger  of  a  man. 
He  had  booked  himself  for  something  cruel,  and  he  was 
miserable  to  be  balked.  Nor  was  I  myself  —  I  shame  to  own 
it  —  an  emblem  of  perfect  forgiveness.  I  know  nothing 
harder  than  for  a  constitutionally  timid  man  of  weak  pro- 
portions to  forgive  the  bullying  superiority  of  brute  force. 
It  is  about  the  greatest  trial  human  forgiveness  can  be  sub- 
jected to;  so  that  when  Jopplyn,  in  a  vulgar  spirit  of  recon- 
ciliation, proposed  that  we  should  go  and  dine  with  him 
that  day,  I  declined  the  invitation  with  a  frigid  politeness. 

"I  wish  I  could  persuade  you  to  change  your  plans,"  said 
he,  "and  let  Mrs.  J.  and  myself  see  you  at  six." 

"I  believe  I  can  answer  for  him  that  it  is  impossible," 
broke  in  the  skipper;  while  he  added  in  a  whisper,  "They 
never  can  afford  any  delay;  they  have  to  put  on  the  steam 
at  high  pressure  from  one  end  of  Europe  to  t'  other." 

What  could  he  possibly  mean  by  imputing  such  haste  to 
my  movements,  and  who  were  "they"  with  whom  he  thus 


116  A  DAY'S  EEDE. 

associated  me  ?  I  would  have  given  worlds  to  ask,  but  the 
presence  of  Jopplyn  prevented  me,  and  so  I  could  simply 
assent  with  a  sort  of  foolish  laugh,  and  a  muttered  "Very 
true,  —  quite  correct." 

"Indeed,  how  you  manage  to  be  here  now,  I  can  scarcely 
imagine,"  continued  the  skipper.  "The  last  of  yours  that 
went  through  this  took  a  roll  of  bread  and  a  cold  chicken 
with  him  into  the  train,  rather  than  halt  to  eat  his  supper, 
—  but  I  conclude  you  know  best." 

What  confounded  mystification  was  passing  through  his 
marine  intellects  I  could  not  fathom.  To  what  guild  or 
brotherhood  of  impetuous  travellers  had  he  ascribed  me? 
Why  should  I  not  "take  mine  ease  in  mine  inn  "?  All  this 
was  very  tantalizing  and  irritating,  and  pleading  a  press- 
ing engagement,  I  took  leave  of  them  both,  and  returned  to 
the  hotel. 

I  was  in  need  of  rest  and  a  little  composure.  The  inci- 
dent of  the  morning  had  jarred  my  nerves  and  disconcerted 
me  much.  But  a  few  hours  ago,  and  life  had  seemed  to  me 
like  a  flowery  meadow,  through  which,  without  path  or 
track,  one  might  ramble  at  will ;  now  it  rather  presented  the 
aspect  of  a  vulgar  kitchen-garden,  fenced  in,  and  divided, 
and  partitioned  off,  with  only  a  few  very  stony  alleys  to 
walk  in.  "This  boasted  civilization  of  ours,"  exclaimed 
I,  "what  is  it  but  snobbery?  Our  class  distinctions,  our 
artificial  intercourses,  our  hypocritical  professions,  our  def- 
erence for  externals,  —  are  they  not  the  flimsiest  pretences 
that  ever  were  fashioned?  Why  has  no  man  the  courage 
to  make  short  work  of  these,  and  see  the  world  as  it  really 
is  ?  Why  has  not  some  one  gone  forth,  the  apostle  of  frank- 
ness and  plain  speaking,  the  same  to  prince  as  to  peasant? 
What  I  would  like  would  be  a  ramble  through  the  less 
visited  parts  of  Europe,  —  countries  in  which  civilization 
slants  in  just  as  the  rays  of  a  setting  sun  steal  into  a  forest 
at  evening.  I  would  buy  me  a  horse.  Oh,  Blondel," 
thought  I,  suddenly,  "am  I  not  in  search  of  you?  Is  it  not 
in  the  hope  to  recover  you  that  I  am  here ;  and,  with  you  for 
my  companion,  am  I  not  content  to  roam  the  world,  taking 
each  incident  of  the  way  with  the  calm  of  one  who  asks 
little  of  his  fellow-man  save  a  kind  word  as  he  passes,  and 


A  JEALOUS  HUSBAND.  117 

a  God-speed  as  he  goes  ?  "  I  knew  perfectly  that,  with  any 
other  beast  for  my  "mount,"  I  could  not  view  the  scene  of 
life  with  the  same  bland  composure.  A  horse  that  started, 
that  tripped,  that  shied,  reared,  kicked,  cromed  his  neck,  or 
even  shook  himself,  as  certain  of  these  beasts  do,  would 
have  kept  me  in  a  paroxysm  of  anxiety  and  uneasiness,  the 
least  adapted  of  all  modes  for  thoughtfulness  and  reflection. 
Like  an  ill-assorted  union,  it  would  have  given  no  time  save 
for  squabble  and  recrimination.  But  Blondel  almost  seemed 
to  understand  my  mission,  and  lent  himself  to  its  accom- 
plishment. There  was  none  of  the  obtrusive  selfishness  of 
an  ordinary  horse  in  his  ways.  He  neither  asked  you  to 
remark  the  glossiness  of  his  skin,  nor  the  graceful  curve  of 
his  neck ;  he  did  not  passage  nor  curvet.  Superior  to  the 
petty  arts  by  which  vulgar  natures  present  themselves  to 
notice,  he  felt  that  destiny  had  given  him  a  duty,  and  he 
did  it. 

Thus  thinking,  I  returned  once  more  to  the  spirit  which 
had  first  sent  me  forth  to  ramble,  to  wander  through  the 
world,  spectator,  not  actor;  to  be  with  my  fellow-men  in 
sympathy,  but  not  in  action;  to  sorrow  and  rejoice  as  they 
did,  but,  if  possible,  to  understand  life  as  a  drama,  in 
which,  so  long  as  I  was  the  mere  audience,  I  could  never  be 
painfully  afflicted  or  seriously  injured  by  the  catastrophe: 
a  wonderful  philosophy,  but  of  which,  up  to  the  present,  I 
could  not  boast  any  pre-eminent  success. 


%. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   DUCHY   OP    HESSE-KALBBRATONSTADT. 

1  GREW  impatient  to  leave  Ostend;  every  association  con- 
nected with  the  place  was  unpleasant.  I  hope  I  am  not  un- 
just in  my  estimate  of  it.  I  sincerely  desire  to  be  neither 
unjust  to  men  nor  cities,  but  I  thought  it  vulgar  and  com- 
monplace. I  know  it  is  hard  for  a  watering-place  to  be 
otherwise ;  there  is  something  essentially  low  in  the  green- 
baize  and  bathing-house  existence,  —  in  that  semi-nude 
sociality,  begun  on  the  sands  and  carried  out  into  deep 
water,  which  I  cannot  abide.  I  abhor,  besides,  a  lounging 
population  in  fancy  toilets,  a  procession  of  donkeys  in  scar- 
let trappings,  elderly  gentlemen  with  pocket-telescopes,  and 
fierce  old  ladies  with  camp-stools.  The  worn-out  debauchees 
come  to  recruit  for  another  season  of  turtle  and  whitebait; 
the  half-faded  victims  of  twenty  polkas  per  night,  the  tire- 
some politician,  pale  from  a  long  session,  all  fiercely  bent 
on  fresh  diet  and  sea-breezes,  are  perfect  antipathies  to  me, 
and  I  would  rather  seek  companionship  in  a  Tyrol  village 
than  amidst  these  wounded  and  missing  of  a  London  season. 
With  all  this  I  wanted  to  get  away  from  the  vicinity  of  the 
Jopplyns,  —  they  were  positively  odious  to  me.  Is  not  the 
man  who  holds  in  his  keeping  one  scrap  of  your  handwrit- 
ing which  displays  you  in  a  light  of  absurdity,  far  more  your 
enemy  than  the  holder  of  your  protested  bill  ?  I  own  I  think 
so.  Debt  is  a  very  human  weakness ;  like  disease,  it  attacks 
the  best  and  the  noblest  amongst  us.  You  may  pity  the 
fellow  that  cannot  meet  that  acceptance,  you  may  be  sorry 
for  the  anxiety  it  occasions  him,  the  fruitless  running  here 
and  there,  the  protestations,  promises,  and  even  lies  he  goes 
through,  but  no  sense  of  ludicrous  scorn  mingles  with  your 
compassion,  none  of  that  contemptuous  laughter  with  which 
you  read  a  copy  of  absurd  verses  or  a  maudlin  love-letter. 


THE  DUCHY  OF  HESSE-KALBBRATONSTADT.       119 

Imagine  the  difference  of  tone  in  him  who  says :  "  That 's  an 
old  bill  of  poor  Potts's ;  he  '11  never  pay  it  now,  and  I  'm  sure 
I  *11  never  ask  him."  Or,  "Just  read  those  lines ;  would  you  be- 
lieve that  any  creature  out  of  Hanwell  could  descend  to  such 
miserable  drivel  as  that  ?     It  was  one  Potts  who  wrote  it. " 

I  wonder,  could  I  obtain  my  manuscript  from  Jopplyn 
before  I  started.  What  pretext  could  1  adduce  for  the 
request?  While  I  thus  pondered,  I  packed  up  my  few  wear- 
ables in  my  knapsack  and  prepared  for  the  road.  They 
were,  indeed,  a  very  scanty  supply,  and  painfully  suggested 
to  my  mind  the  estimate  that  waiters  and  hotel-porters  must 
form  of  their  owner.  "Cruel  world,"  muttered  I,  "whose 
maxim  is,  *  By  their  outsides  shall  ye  judge  them. '  Had  I 
arrived  here  with  a  travelling-carriage  and  a  '  f ourgon, ' 
what  respect  and  deference  had  awaited  me, —  how  courteous 
the  landlord,  how  obliging  the  head-waiter!  Twenty  atten- 
tions which  could  not  be  charged  for  in  the  bill  had  been 
shown  me;  and  even  had  I,  in  superb  dignity,  declined  to 
descend  from  my  carriage  while  the  post-horses  were  being 
harnessed,  a  levee  of  respectful  flunkeys  would  have  awaited 
my  orders.  I  have  no  doubt  but  there  must  be  something 
very  intoxicating  in  all  this  homage.  The  smoke  of  the 
hecatombs  must  have  affected  Jove  as  a  sort  of  chloroform, 
or  else  he  would  never  have  sat  there  sniffing  them  for  cen- 
turies. Are  you  ever  destined  to  experience  these  sensa- 
tions. Potts  ?  Is  there  a  time  coming  when  anxious  ears  will 
strain  to  catch  your  words,  and  eyes  watch  eagerly  for  your 
slightest  gestures?  If  such  an  era  should  ever  come,  it 
will  be  a  great  one  for  the  masses  of  mankind,  and  an  evil 
one  for  snobbery.  Such  a  lesson  as  I  will  read  the  world 
on  humility  in  high  places,  such  an  example  will  I  give  of 
one  elevated,  but  uncorrupted  by  fortune." 

"Let  the  carriage  come  to  the  door,"  said  I,  closing  my 
eyes,  as  I  sunk  into  my  chair  in  revery.  "Tell  my  people 
to  prepare  the  entire  of  the  '  Hotel  de  Belle  Vue  '  for  my 
arrival,  and  my  own  cook  to  preside  in  the  kitchen." 

"Is  this  to  go  by  the  omnibus?"  said  the  waiter,  sud- 
denly, on  entering  my  room  in  haste.  He  pointed  to  my 
humble  knapsack. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  in  deep  confusion,  — "yes,  that's  my  lug- 


120  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

gage,  —  at  least,  all  that  I  have  here  at  this  moment.  Where 
is  the  bill?  Very  moderate,  indeed,"  muttered  I,  in  a  tone 
of  approval.  ''I  will  take  care  to  recommend  your  houses 
attendance  prompt,  and  the  wines  excellent." 

"Monsieur  is  complimentary,"  said  the  fellow,  with  a 
grin;  "he  only  experimented  upon  a  'small  Beaune  '  at 
one- twenty  the  bottle." 

I  scowled  at  him,  and  he  shrank  again. 

"And  this  ohjet  is  also  monsieur's,"  said  he,  taking  up  a 
small  white  canvas  bag  which  was  enclosed  in  my  railroad 
wrapper. 

"What  is  it?"  cried  I,  taking  it  up.  I  almost  fell  back 
as  I  saw  that  it  was  one  of  the  despatch-bags  of  the  Foreign 
Office,  which  in  my  hasty  departure  from  the  Dover  train  I 
had  accidentally  carried  off  with  me.  There  it  was,  ad- 
dressed to  "Sir  Shalley  Doubleton,  H.M.'s  Envoy  and  Min- 
ister at  Hesse-Kalbbratonstadt,  by  the  Hon.  Grey  Buller^ 
Attache,"  &c. 

Here  was  not  alone  what  might  be  construed  into  a  theft^ 
but  what  it  was  well  possible  might  comprise  one  of  the 
gravest  offences  against  the  law :  it  might  be  high  treason 
itself !  Who  would  ever  credit  my  story,  coupled  as  it  was 
with  the  fact  of  my  secret  escape  from  the  carriage;  my 
precipitate  entrance  into  the  first  place  I  could  find,  not  to 
speak  of  the  privacy  I  observed  by  not  mixing  with  the  pas- 
sengers in  the  mail  packet,  by  keeping  myself  estranged 
from  all  observation  in  the  captain's  cabin?  Here,  too, 
was  the  secret  of  the  skipper's  politeness  to  me:  he  saw  the 
bag,  and  believed  me  to  be  a  Foreign  Office  messenger,  and 
this  was  his  meaning,  as  he  said,  "  I  can  answer  for  him,  he 
can't  delay  much  here."  Yes;  this  was  the  entire  mystifi- 
cation by  which  I  obtained  his  favor,  his  politeness,  and  his 
protection.  What  was  to  be  done  in  this  exigency  ?  Had 
the  waiter  not  seen  the  bag,  and  with  the  instincts  of  his 
craft  calmly  perused  the  address  on  it,  I  believe  —  nay,  I 
am  quite  convinced  —  I  should  have  burned  it  and  its  con- 
tents on  the  spot.  The  thought  of  his  evidence  against  me 
in  the  event  of  a  discovery,  however,  entirely  routed  this 
notion,  and,  after  a  brief  consideration  I  resolved  to  convey 
the  bag  to  its  destination,  and  trump  up  the  most  plausible 


THE  DUCHY  OF  HESSE-KALBBRATONSTADT.       121 

explanation  I  could  of  the  way  it  came  into  my  possession. 
His  Excellency,  I  reasoned,  will  doubtless  be  too  delighted 
to  receive  his  despatches  to  inquire  very  minutely  as  to  the 
means  by  which  they  were  recovered,  nor  is  it  quite  impos- 
sible that  he  may  feel  bound  to  mark  my  zeal  for  the  public 
service  by  some  token  of  recognition.  This  was  a  pleasant 
turn  to  give  to  my  thoughts,  and  I  took  it  with  all  the 
avidity  of  my  peculiar  temperament.  "Yes,"  thought  I, 
"it  is  just  out  of  trivial  incidents  like  this  a  man's  fortune 
is  made  in  life.  For  one  man  who  mounts  to  greatness  by 
the  great  entrance  and  the  state  staircase,  ten  thousand  slip 
in  by  la  petite  Forte.  It  is,  in  fact,  only  by  these  chances 
that  obscure  genius  obtains  acknowledgment.  How,  for 
example,  should  this  great  diplomatist  know  Potts  if  some 
accident  should  not  throw  them  together?  Raleigh  flung 
his  laced  jacket  in  a  puddle,  and  for  his  reward  he  got  a 
proud  Queen's  favor.  A  village  apothecary  had  the  good 
fortune  to  be  visiting  the  state  apartments  at  the  Pavilion 
when  George  the  Fourth  was  seized  with  a  fit ;  he  bled  him, 
brought  him  back  to  consciousness,  and  made  him  laugh  by 
his  genial  and  quaint  humor.  The  king  took  a  fancy  to 
him,  named  him  his  physician,  and  made  his  fortune.  I 
have  often  heard  it  remarked  by  men  who  have  seen  much 
of  life,  that  nobody,  not  one,  goes  through  the  world  without 
two  or  three  such  opportunities  presenting  themselves.  The 
careless,  the  indolent,  the  unobservant,  and  the  idle,  either 
fail  to  remark,  or  are  too  slow  to  profit  by  them.  The  sharp 
fellows,  on  the  contrary,  see  in  such  incidents  all  that  they 
need  to  lead  them  to  success.  Into  which  of  these  categories 
you  are  to  enter.  Potts,  let  this  incident  decide." 

Having  by  a  reference  to  my  John  Murray  ascertained 
the  whereabouts  of  the  capital  of  Hesse-Kalbbratonstadt,  I 
took  my  place  at  once  on  the  rail  for  Cologne,  reading  my- 
self up  on  its  beauty  and  its  belongings  as  I  went.  There 
is,  however,  such  a  dreary  sameness  in  these  small  Ducal 
states,  that  I  am  ashamed  to  say  how  little  I  gleaned  of  any- 
thing distinctive  in  the  case  before  me.  The  reigning  sov- 
ereign was,  of  course,  married  to  a  Grand  Duchess  of  Rus- 
sia, and  he  lived  at  a  country-seat  called  Ludwig's  Lust,  or 
Carl's  Lust,  as  it  might  be,  "took  little  interest  in  politics," 


122  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

—  how  should  he?  —  and  "passed  much  of  his  time  in 
mechanical  pursuits,  in  which  he  had  attained  considerable 
proficiency ; "  in  other  words,  he  was  a  middle-aged  gentle- 
man, fond  of  his  pipe,  and  with  a  taste  for  carpentry. 
Some  sort  of  connection  with  our  own  royal  family  had  been 
the  pretext  for  haying  a  resident  minister  at  his  court, 
though  what  he  was  to  do  when  he  was  there  seemed  not 
so  easy  to  say.  Even  John,  glorious  John,  was  puzzled  how 
to  make  a  respectable  half-page  out  of  his  capital,  though 
there  was  a  dome  in  the  Byzantine  style,  with  an  altarpiece 
by  Peter  von  Grys,  the  angels  in  the  corner  being  added 
afterwards  by  Hans  Liiders;  and  there  was  a  Hof  Theatre, 
and  an  excellent  inn,  the  "Schwein,"  by  Kramm,  where  the 
sausages  of  home  manufacture  were  highly  recommendable, 
no  less  than  a  table  wine  of  the  host's  vineyard,  called 
''Magenschmerzer,"  and  which,  Murray  adds,  would  doubt- 
less, if  known,  find  many  admirers  in  England ;  and  lastly, 
but  far  from  leastly,  there  was  a  Music  Garten,  where  popu- 
lar pieces  were  performed  very  finely  by  an  excellent  Ger- 
man band,  and  to  which  promenade  all  the  fashion  of  the 
capital  nightly  resorted. 

I  give  you  all  these  details,  respected  reader,  just  as  I  got 
them  in  my  "Northern  Germany,"  and  not  intending  to 
obtrude  any  further  description  of  my  own  upon  you ;  for 
who,  I  would  ask,  could  amplify  upon  his  Handbook? 
What  remains  to  be  noted  after  John  has  taken  the  inven- 
tory? Has  he  forgotten  a  nail  or  a  saint's  shin-bone?  With 
him  for  a  guide,  a  man  may  feel  that  he  has  done  his  Europe 
conscientiously ;  and  though  it  be  hard  to  treasure  up  all  the 
hard  names  of  poets,  painters,  priests,  and  warriors,  it  is 
not  worse  than  botany,  and  about  as  profitable. 

For  the  same  reason  that  I  have  given  above,  I  spare  my 
reader  all  the  circumstances  of  my  journey,  my  difficulties 
about  carriage,  my  embarrassments  about  steamboats  and 
cab  fares,  which  were  all  of  the  order  that  Brown  and  Jones 
have  experienced,  are  experiencing,  and  will  continue  to 
experience,  till  the  arrival  of  that  millenary  period  when 
we  shall  all  converse  in  any  tongue  we  please. 

It  was  at  nightfall  that  I  drove  into  Kalbbratonstadt,  my 
postilion  announcing  my  advent  at  the  gates,  and  all  the 


THE  DUCHY  OF  HESSE-KALBBRATONSTADT.       123 

way  to  the  Platz  where  the  inn  stood,  by  a  volley  of  whip- 
crackings  which  might  have  announced  a  Grand-Duke  or  a 
prima  donna.  Some  casements  were  hastily  opened,  as  we 
rumbled  along,  and  the  guests  of  a  cafe  issued  hurriedly  into 
the  street  to  watch  us  ;  but  these  demonstrations  over,  I  gained 
the  ''  Schwein"  without  further  notice,  and  descended. 

Herr  Kramm  looked  suspiciously  at  the  small  amount  of 
luggage  of  the  traveller  who  arrived  by  ''extra  post,"  but, 
like  an  honest  German,  he  was  not  one  to  form  rash  judg- 
ments, and  so  he  showed  me  to  a  comfortable  apartment, 
and  took  my  orders  for  supper  in  all  respectfulness.  He 
waited  upon  me  also  at  my  meal,  and  gave  me  opportunity 
for  conversation.  While  1  ate  my  Carbonade  mit  Kartoffel- 
Salad,  therefore,  I  learned  that,  being  already  nine  o'clock, 
it  was  far  too  late  an  hour  to  present  myself  at  the  English 
Embassy,  —  for  so  he  designated  our  minister's  residence ; 
that,  at  this  advanced  period  of  the  night  there  were  but 
few  citizens  out  of  their  beds :  the  Ducal  candle  was  always 
extinguished  at  half-past  eight,  and  only  roisterers  and 
revellers  kept  it  up  much  later.  My  first  surprise  over,  I 
owned  I  liked  all  this.  It  smacked  of  that  simple  patri- 
archal existence  I  had  so  long  yearned  after.  Let  the  learned 
explain  it,  but  there  is,  I  assert,  something  in  the  early 
hours  of  a  people  that  guarantee  habits  of  simplicity,  thrift, 
and  order.  It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  people  can  be  as 
wicked  at  eight  in  the  evening  as  at  two  or  three  in  the 
morning ;  that  crime  cares  little  for  the  clock,  nor  does  vice 
respect  the  chronometer ;  but  does  experience  confirm  this, 
and  are  not  the  small  hours  notorious  for  the  smallest  moral- 
ities? The  Grand-Duke,  who  is  fast  asleep  at  nine,  is 
scarcely  disturbed  by  dreams  of  cruelties  to  his  people. 
The  police  minister,  who  takes  his  bedroom  candle  at  the 
same  hour,  is  seldom  harassed  by  devising  new  schemes  of 
torture  for  his  victims.  I  sufifered  my  host  to  talk  largely 
of  his  town  and  its  people ;  and  probably  such  a  listener 
rarely  presented  himself,  for  he  certainly  improved  the  occa- 
sion. He  assured  me,  with  a  gravity  that  vouched  for  the 
conviction,  that  the  capital,  though  by  no  means  so  dear  as 
London  or  Paris,  contained  much,  if  not  all,  these  more  pre- 
tentious cities  could  boast.     There  was  a  court,  a  theatre,  a 


124  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

promenade,  a  public  fountain,  and  a  new  jail,  one  of  the 
largest  in  all  Germany.  Jenny  Lind  had  once  sung  at  the 
opera  on  her  way  to  Vienna ;  and  to  prove  how  they  sympa- 
thized in  every  respect  with  greater  centres  of  population, 
when  the  cholera  raged  at  Berlin,  they,  too,  lost  about  four 
hundred  of  their  townsfolk.  Lastly,  he  mentioned,  and 
this  boastfully,  that  though  neither  wanting  organs  of  public 
opinion,  nor  men  of  adequate  ability  to  guide  them,  the 
Kalbbratoners  had  never  mixed  themselves  up  in  politics, 
but  proudly  maintained  that  calm  and  dignified  attitude 
which  Europe  would  one  day  appreciate ;  that  is,  if  she  ever 
arrived  at  the  crowning  knowledge  of  the  benefit  of  letting 
her  differences  be  decided  by  some  impartial  umpire. 

More  than  once,  as  I  heard  him,  I  muttered  to  myself, 
"Potts,  this  is  the  very  spot  you  have  sought  for;  here  is 
all  the  tranquil  simplicity  of  the  village,  with  the  elevated 
culture  of  a  great  city.  Here  are  sages  and  philosophers 
clad  in  homespun.  Beauty  herself  in  linsey-woolsey.  Here 
there  are  no  vulgar  rivalries  of  riches,  no  contests  in  fine 
clothes,  no  opposing  armies  of  yellow  plush.  Men  are  great 
by  their  faculties,  not  in  their  flunkeys.  How  elevated 
must  be  the  tone  of  their  thoughts,  the  style  of  their  conver- 
sation!  and  what  a  lucky  accident  it  was  that  led  you  to 
that  goal  to  which  all  your  wishes  and  hopes  have  been  con- 
verging !  —  For  how  much  can  a  man  live  —  a  single  gentle- 
man like  myself  —  here  in  your  city  ?  "  asked  I  of  my  host. 

He  sat  down  at  this,  and,  filling  himself  a  large  goblet  of 
my  wine,  —  the  last  in  the  bottle,  —  he  prepared  for  a 
lengthy  seance. 

"First  of  all,"  said  he,  "how  would  he  wish  to  live? 
Would  he  desire  to  mingle  in  our  best  circles,  equal  to  any 
in  Europe,  to  know  Herr  von  Krugwitz,  and  the  Gnadige 
Frau  von  Steinhaltz  ?  " 

"Well,"  thought  I,  "these  be  fair  ambitions."  And  I 
said,   "Yes,  both  of  them." 

"And  to  be  on  the  list  of  the  court  dinners?  There  are 
two  yearly,  one  at  Easter,  the  other  on  his  Highuess's  birth- 
day, whom  may  Providence  long  protect !  " 

To  this  also  might  he  aspire. 

"  And  to  have  a  stall  at  the  Grand  Opera,  and  a  carriage 


THE  DUCHY  OF  HESSE-KALBBRATONSTADT.       125 

to  return  visits  —  twice  in  carnival  time  —  and  to  live  in  a 
handsome  quarter,  and  dine  every  day  at  our  table  d'hote 
here  with  General  von  Beulwitz  and  the  Hof  rath  von  Schlaff- 
richter?  A  life  like  this  is  costly,  and  would  scarcely  be 
comprised  under  two  thousand  florins  a  year." 

How  my  heart  bounded  at  the  notion  of  refinement,  cul- 
ture, elevated  minds,  and  polished  habits ;  "  science,"  indeed, 
and  the  "musical  glasses,"  all  for  one  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds  per  annum. 

"It  is  not  improbable  that  you  will  see  me  your  guest 
for  many  a  day  to  come,"  said  I,  as  I  ordered  another 
bottle,  and  of  a  more  generous  vintage,  to  honor  the  occasion. 

My  host  offered  no  opposition  to  my  convivial  projects ; 
nay,  he  aided  them  by  saying,  — 

"If  you  have  really  an  appreciation  for  something  super- 
excellent  in  wine,  and  wish  to  taste  what  Freiligrath  calls 
*  der  Deutschen  Nectar,*  I'll  go  and  fetch  you  a  bottle." 

"Bring  it  by  all  means,"  said  I.  And  away  he  went  on 
his  mission. 

"  Providence  blessed  me  with  two  hands,"  said  he,  as 
he  re-entered  the  room,  "and  I  have  brought  two  flasks  of 
Lieb  Herzenthaler." 

There  is  something  very  artistic  in  the  way  your  picture- 
dealer,  having  brushed  away  the  dust  from  a  Mieris  or  a 
Gerard  Dow,  places  the  work  in  a  favorite  light  before 
you,  and  then  stands  to  watch  the  effect  on  your  counte- 
nance. So,  too,  will  your  man  of  rare  manuscripts  and 
illuminated  missals  offer  to  your  notice  some  illegible  treasure 
of  the  fourth  century ;  but  these  are  nothing  to  the  mysteri- 
ous solemnity  of  him  who,  uncorking  a  bottle  of  rare  wine, 
waits  to  note  the  varying  sensations  of  your  first  enjoyment 
down  to  your  perfect  ecstasy. 

I  tried  to  perform  my  part  of  the  piece  with  credit:  I 
looked  long  at  the  amber-colored  liqugr  in  the  glass;  I 
sniffed  it  and  smiled  approvingly;  the  host  smiled  too, 
and  said,  "Ja!"  Not  another  syllable  did  he  utter,  but 
how  expressive  was  that  "Ja!"  "Ja!"  meant,  "You 
are  right.  Potts,  it  is  the  veritable  wine  of  1764,  bottled 
for  the  Herzog  Lud wig's  marriage ;  every  drop  of  it  is 
priceless.     Mark  the  odor,  how  it  perfumes  the  air  around 


126  A   DAY'S  RIDE. 

us ;  regard  the  color  —  the  golden  hair  of  Venus  can  alone 
rival  it ;  see  how  the  oily  globules  cling  to  the  glass ! " 
*'Ja!"  meant  all  this,  and  more. 

As  I  drank  off  my  glass,  I  was  sorely  puzzled  by  the 
precise  expression  in  which  to  couch  my  approval ;  but  he 
supplied  it  and  said,  "Is  it  not  Gottlieb?"  and  I  said  it 
was  Gottlieb ;  and  while  we  finished  the  two  bottles,  this 
solitary  phrase  sufficed  for  converse  between  us,  *^  Gottlieb !  " 
being  uttered  by  each  as  he  drained  his  glass,  and  *'  Gott- 
lieb !  "  being  re-echoed  by  his  companion. 

There  is  great  wisdom  in  reducing  our  admiration  to  a" 
word ;  giving,  as  it  were,  a  cognate  number  to  our  estimate 
of  anything.  Wherever  we  amplify,  we  usually  blunder: 
we  employ  epithets  that  disagree,  or,  in  even  less  question- 
able taste,  soar  into  extravagances  that  are  absurd.  Besides, 
our  moods  of  highest  enjoyment  are  not  such  as  dispose  to 
talkativeness;  the  ecstasy  that  is  most  enthralling  is  self- 
contained.  Who,  on  looking  at  a  glorious  landscape,  does 
not  feel  the  insufferable  bathos  of  the  descriptive  enthusiast 
beside  him  ?  How  grateful  would  he  own  himself  if  he  would 
be  satisfied  with  one  word  for  his  admiration !  And  if  one 
needs  this  calm  repose,  this  unbroken  peace,  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  scenery,  equally  is  it  applicable  to  our  appreciation 
of  a  curious  wine.  I  have  no  recollection  that  any  further 
conversation  passed  between  us,  but  I  have  never  ceased, 
and  most  probably  never  shall  cease,  to  have  a  perfect 
memory  of  the  pleasant  ramble  of  my  thoughts  as  I  sat  there 
sipping,  sipping.  I  pondered  long  over  a  plan  of  settling 
down  in  this  place  for  life,  by  what  means  I  could  realize 
sufficient  to  live  in  that  elevated  sphere  the  host  spoke  of. 
If  Potts  pere  —  I  mean  my  father  —  were  to  learn  that  I 
were  received  in  the  highest  circles,  admitted  to  all  that  was 
most  socially  exclusive,  would  he  be  induced  to  make  an 
adequate  provision  for  me?  He  was  an  ambitious  and  a 
worldly  man ;  would  he  see  in  these  beginnings  of  mine 
the  seeds  of  future  greatness?  Fathers,  I  well  knew,  are 
splendidly  generous  to  their  successful  children,  and  "  the 
poor  they  send  empty  away."  It  is  so  pleasant  to  aid  him 
who  does  not  need  assistance,  and  such  a  hopeless  task  to  be 
always  saving  him  who  will  be  drowned. 


THE  DUCHY  OF  HESSE-KALBBRATONSTADT.       127 

My  first  care,  therefore,  should  be  to  impress  upon  my 
parent  the  appropriateness  of  his  contributing  his  share  to 
what  already  was  an  accomplished  success.  ''  "Wishing,  aa 
the  French  say,  to  make  you  a  part  in  my  triumph,  dear 
father,  I  write  these  lines."  How  I  picture  him  to  my 
mind's  eye  as  he  reads  this,  running  frantically  about  to 
his  neighbors,  and  saying,  "  I  have  got  a  letter  from  Algy, 
—  strange  boy,  —  but  as  I  always  foresaw,  with  great  stuff 
in  him,  very  remarkable  abilities.  See  what  he  has  done,  — 
struck  out  a  perfect  line  of  his  own  in  life ;  just  the  sort 
of  thing  genius  alone  can  do.  He  went  off  from  this  one' 
morning  by  way  of  a  day's  excursion,  never  returned,  — 
never  wrote.  All  my  efforts  to  trace  him  were  in  vain.  I 
advertised,  and  offered  rewards,  did  everything,  without 
success;  and  now,  after  all  this  long  interval,  comes  a. 
letter  by  this  morning's  post  to  tell  me  that  he  is  well, 
happy,  and  prosperous.  He  is  settled,  it  appears,  in  a 
German  capital  with  a  hard  name,  a  charming  spot,  with 
every  accessory  of  enjoyment  in  it:  men  of  the  highest 
culture,  and  women  of  most  graceful  and  attractive  man- 
ner ;  as  he  himself  writes, '  the  elegance  of  a  Parisian  salon 
added  to  the  wisdom  of  the  professor's  cabinet.'  Here  i& 
Algy  living  with  all  that  is  highest  in  rank  and  most  dis- 
tinguished in  station ;  the  favored  guest  of  the  Prince,  the 
bosom  friend  of  the  English  minister;  his  advice  sought 
for,  his  counsel  asked  in  every  difficulty;  trusted  in  the 
most  important  state  offices,  and  taken  into  the  most  secret 
counsels  of  the  duchy.  Though  the  requirements  of  hi& 
station  make  heavy  demands  upon  his  means,  very  little  help 
from  me  will  enable  him  to  maintain  a  position  which 
a  few  years  more  will  have  consolidated  into  a  rank  recog- 
nized throughout  Europe."  Would  the  flintiest  of  fathers, 
would  the  most  primitive  rock-hearted  of  parents,  resist  an 
appeal  like  this?  It  is  no  hand  to  rescue  from  the  wavea 
is  sought,  but  a  little  finger  to  help  to  affluence.  ''Of 
course  you  '11  do  it,  Potts,  and  do  it  liberally ;  the  boy  is 
a  credit  to  you.  He  will  place  your  name  where  you  never 
dreamed  to  see  it.  What  do  you  mean  to  settle  on  him? 
Above  all  things,  no  stinginess;  don't  disgust  him." 

I  hear  these  and  such-like  on  every  hand  ;    even  the  most 


128  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

close-fisted  and  miserly  of  our  acquaintances  will  be  gener- 
ous of  their  friend's  money ;  and  I  think  I  hear  the  sage 
remarks  with  which  they  season  advice  with  touching  allu- 
sions to  that  well-known  ship  that  was  lost  for  want  of  a 
small  outlay  in  tar.  "  Come  down  handsomely,  Potts," 
says  a  resolute  man,  who  has  sworn  never  to  pay  a  six- 
pence of  his  son's  debts.  '*  What  better  use  can  we  make 
of  our  hoardings  than  to  render  our  young  people  happy  ?  " 
I  don't  like  the  man  who  says  this,  but  I  like  his  sentiments ; 
and  I  am  much  pleased  when  he  goes  on  to  remark  that  "  there 
is  no  such  good  investment  as  what  establishes  a  successful 
son.  Be  proud  of  the  boy.  Potts,  and  thank  your  stars  that 
he  had  a  soul  above  senna,  and  a  spirit  above  sal  volatile !  " 

As  1  invent  all  this  play  of  dialogue  for  myself,  and  pic- 
ture the  speakers  before  me,  I  come  at  last  to  a  small  peevish 
little  fellow  named  Lynch,  a  merchant  tailor,  who  lived  next 
door  to  us,  and  enjoyed  much  of  my  father's  confidence. 
"  So  they  tell  me  you  have  heard  from  that  runaway  of  yours, 
Potts.  Is  it  true?  What  face  does  he  put  upon  his  disgrace- 
ful conduct?  What  became  of  the  livery-stable-keeper's 
horse?  Did  he  sell  him,  or  ride  him  to  death?  A  bad  busi- 
ness if  he  should  ever  come  back  again,  which,  of  course,  he  's 
too  wise  for.     And  where  is  he  now,  and  what  is  he  at?  " 

''  You  may  read  this  letter,  Mr.  Lynch,"  replies  my  father ; 
"he  is  one  who  can  speak  for  himself."  And  Lynch  reads 
and  sniggers,  and  reads  again.  I  see  him  as  plainly  as  if  he 
were  but  a  yard  from  me.  *'  I  never  heard  of  this  ducal 
capital  before,"  he  begins,  "  but  I  suppose  it 's  like  the  rest 
of  them,  —  little  obscure  dens  of  pretentious  poverty,  plenty 
of  ceremony,  and  very  little  to  eat.  How  did  he  find  it  out? 
What  brought  him  there  ?  " 

''You  have  this  letter  before  you,  sir,"  says  my  parent, 
proudly.  ''  Algernon  Sydney  is,  I  imagine,  quite  compe- 
tent to  explain  what  relates  to  his  own  affairs." 

"Oh,  perfectly,  perfectly;  only  that  I  can't  really  make 
out  how  he  first  came  to  this  place,  nor  what  it  is  that  he 
does  there  now  that  he's  in  it." 

My  father  hastily  snatches  the  letter  from  his  hands,  and 
runs  his  eye  rapidly  along  to  catch  the  passage  which  sliall 
confute  the  objector  and   cover  him  with  shame   and   con- 


THE  DUCHY  OF  HESSE-KALBBRATONSTADT.       129 

fusion.  He  cannot  find  it  at  once.  *'  It  is  this.  No,  it  is 
on  this  side.  Very  strange,  very  singular  indeed ;  but  as 
Algernon  must  have  told  me  —  "  Alas  !  no,  father,  he  has 
not  told  you,  and  for  the  simple  reason  that  he  does  not 
know  it  himself.  For  though  I  mentioned  with  becoming 
pride  the  prominent  stations  Irishmen  now  hold  in  most  of 
the  great  states  of  Europe,  and  pointed  to  O'Donnel  in  Spain, 
MacMahon  in  France,  and  the  Field-Marshal  Nugent  in 
Austria,  I  utterly  forgot  to  designate  the  high  post  occupied 
by  Potts  in  the  Duchy  of  Hesse-Kalbbratoustadt.  To  deter-, 
mine  what  this  should  be  was  now  of  imminent  importance, 
and  I  gave  myself  up  to  the  solution  with  a  degree  of  intent- 
ness  and  an  amount  of  concentration  that  set  me  off  sound 
asleep. 

Yes,  benevolent  reader,  I  will  confess  it,  questions  of  a 
complicated  character  have  always  affected  me,  as  the  inside 
of  a  letter  seems  to  have  struck  Tony  Lumkin,  —  '*  all  buzz." 
I  start  with  the  most  loyal  desire  to  be  acute  and  penetrat- 
ing ;  I  set  myself  to  my  task  with  as  honest  a  disposition  to 
do  my  best  as  ever  man  did ;  I  say,  ''  Now,  Potts,  no  self- 
indulgence,  no  skulking ;  here  is  a  knotty  problem,  here  is  a 
case  for  your  best  faculties  in  their  sharpest  exercise  ;  "  and  if 
any  one  come  in  upon  me  about  ten  minutes  after  this  resolve, 
he  will  see  a  man  who  could  beat  Sancho  Panza  in  sleeping ! 

Of  course  this  tendency  has  often  cost  me  dearly ;  I  have 
missed  appointments,  forgotten  assignations,  lost  friends 
through  it.  My  character,  too,  has  suffered,  many  deeming 
me  insupportably  indolent,  a  sluggard  quite  unfit  for  any 
active  employment.  Others,  more  mercifully  hinting  at 
some  "cerebral  cause,"  have  done  me  equal  damage;  but 
there  happily  is  an  obverse  on  the  medal,  and  to  this  somno- 
lency do  I  ascribe  much  of  the  gentleness  and  all  the  romance 
of  my  nature.  It  is  your  sleepy  man  is  ever  benevolent,  he 
loves  ease  and  quiet  for  others  as  for  himself.  What  he 
cultivates  is  the  tranquil  mood  that  leads  to  slumber,  and 
the  calm  that  sustains  it.  The  very  operations  of  the  mind 
in  sleep  are  broken,  incoherent,  undelineated,  —  just  like  the 
waking  occupations  of  an  idle  man ;  they  are  thoughts  that 
cost  so  little  to  manufacture,  that  he  can  afford  to  be  lavish 
of  them.     And  now  —  Good-night ! 

9 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

I   CALL   AT   THE    BRITISH    LEGATION. 

Breakfast  over,  I  took  a  walk  through  the  town.  Though 
in  a  measure  prepared  for  a  scene  of  unbustling  quietude 
and  tranquillity,  I  must  own  that  the  air  of  repose  around, 
far  surpassed  all  I  had  imagined.  The  streets  through 
which  I  sauntered  were  grass-grown  and  untrodden ;  the 
shops  were  but  half  open;  not  an  equipage,  nor  even  a 
horseman  was  to  be  seen.  In  the  Platz,  where  a  sort  of 
fruit-market  was  held,  a  few  vendors  of  grapes,  peaches, 
and  melons  sat  under  large  crimson  umbrellas,  but  there 
seemed  few  purchasers,  except  a  passing  schoolboy,  carefully 
scanning  the  temptations  in  which  he  was  about  to  invest 
his  kreutzer. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  place,  however,  and 
it  is  one  which,  through  a  certain  significance,  has  always 
held  its  place  in  my  memory,  was  that,  go  where  one  would, 
the  palace  of  the  Grand-Duke  was  sure  to  finish  the  view  at 
one  extremity  of  the  street.  In  fact,  every  alley  converged 
to  this  one  centre,  and  the  royal  residence  stood  like  the 
governor's  chamber  in  a  panopticon  jail.  There  did  my 
mind  for  many  a  day  picture  him  sitting  like  a  huge  spider 
watching  the  incautious  insects  that  permeated  his  web.  I 
imagined  him  fat,  indolent,  and  apathetic,  but  yet,  with  a 
jailer's  instincts,  ever  mindful  of  every  stir  and  movement 
of  the  prisoners  below.  With  a  very  ordinary  telescope  he 
must  be  master  of  everything  that  went  on,  and  the  humblest 
incident  could  not  escape  his  notice.  Was  it  the  conscious- 
ness of  this  surveillance  that  made  every  one  keep  the  house  ? 
Was  it  the  feeling  that  the  "  Gross  Herzogliche  "  eye  never 
left  them,  that  prevented  men  being  abroad  in  the  streets 
and  about  their  affairs  as  in  other  places  ?     I  half  suspected 


I  CALL  AT  THE  BRITISH  LEGATION.  131 

this,  and  set  to  work  imaginiDg  a  state  of  society  thus 
scanned  and  scrutinized.  But  that  the  general  aspect  of  the 
town  so  palpably  proclaimed  the  absence  of  all  trade  and 
industry,  I  might  have  compared  the  whole  to  a  glass  hive ; 
but  they  were  all  drones  that  dwelt  there,  there  was  not  one 
*'  busy  bee  "  in  the  whole  of  them. 

When  I  rambled  thus  carelessly  along,  I  came  in  front  of 
a  sort  of  garden  fenced  from  the  street  by  an  iron  railing. 
The  laurel  and  arbutus,  and  even  the  oleander,  were  there, 
gracefully  blending  a  varied  foliage,  and  contrasting  in 
their  luxuriant  liberty  so  pleasantly  with  the  dull  uniformity 
outside.  Finding  a  gate  wide  open,  I  strolled  in,  and  gave 
myself  up  to  the  delicious  enjoyment  of  the  spot.  As  I  was 
deliberating  whether  this  was  a  public  garden  or  not,  I  found 
myself  before  a  long,  low,  villa-like  building,  with  a  colon- 
nade in  front.  Over  the  entrance  was  a  large  shield,  which 
on  nearer  approach  I  recognized  to  contain  the  arms  of 
England.  This,  therefore,  was  the  legation,  the  residence 
of  our  minister,  Sir  Shalley  Doubleton.  I  felt  a  very  British 
pride  and  satisfaction  to  see  our  representative  lodged  so 
splendidly.  With  all  the  taxpayer's  sentiment  in  my  heart, 
I  rejoiced  to  think  that  he  who  personated  the  nation  should, 
in  all  his  belongings,  typify  the  wealth,  the  style,  and  the 
grandeur  of  England,  and  in  the  ardor  of  this  enthusiasm,  I 
hastened  back  to  the  inn  for  the  despatch-bag. 

Armed  with  this,  and  a  card,  I  soon  presented  myself  at 
the  door.  On  the  card  I  had  written,  *'  Mr.  Pottinger  pre- 
sents his  respectful  compliments,  and  requests  his  Excellency 
will  favor  him  with  an  audience  of  a  few  minutes  for  an 
explanation.'* 

I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  State  that  my  servant,  in 
removing  my  smaller  luggage  from  the  train,  had  acci- 
dentally carried  off  this  Foreign  Office  bag,  which,  though 
at  considerable  inconvenience,  I  had  travelled  much  out  of 
my  way  to  restore  in  person.  I  had  practised  this  expla- 
nation as  I  dressed  in  the  morning,  I  had  twice  rehearsed 
it  to  an  orange-tree  in  the  garden,  before  which  I  had 
bowed  till  my  back  ached,  and  I  fancied  myself  perfect  in 
my  part.  It  would,  I  confess,  have  been  a  great  relief  to 
me  to  have  had  only  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  great 


132  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

personage  before  whom  I  was  about  to  present  myself,  to 
have  known  was  he  short  or  tall,  young  or  old,  solemn  or 
easy-mannered,  had  he  a  loud  voice  and  an  imperious  tone, 
or  was  he  of  the  soft  and  silky  order  of  his  craft.  I  'd 
have  willingly  entertained  his  ' '  gentleman  "  at  a  moderate 
repast  for  some  information  on  these  points,  but  there 
was  no  time  for  the  inquiry,  and  so  I  rang  boldly  at  the 
bell.  The  door  opened  of  itself  at  the  summons,  and  I 
found  myself  in  a  large  hall  with  a  plaster  cast  of  the 
Laocoon,  and  nothing  else.  I  tried  several  of  the  doors  on 
either  side,  but  they  were  all  locked.  A  very  handsome 
and  spacious  stair  of  white  marble  led  up  from  the  middle 
of  the  hall ;  but  I  hesitated  about  venturing  to  ascend  this, 
and  once  more  repaired  to  the  bell  outside,  and  repeated 
my  summons.  The  loud  clang  re-echoed  through  the  arched 
hall,  the  open  door  gave  a  responsive  shake,  and  that  was  all. 
No  one  came  ;  everything  was  still  as  before.  I  was  rather 
chagrined  at  this.  The  personal  inconvenience  was  less- 
offensive  than  the  feeling  how  foreigners  would  comment  on 
such  want  of  propriety,  what  censures  they  would  pass  on 
such  an  ill-arranged  household.  I  rang  again,  this  time  with 
an  energy  that  made  the  door  strike  some  of  the  plaster  from 
the  wall,  and,  with  a  noise  like  cannon,  ''  What  the  hang- 
man " —  I  am  translating — "is  all  this?"  cried  a  voice 
thick  with  passion ;  and,  on  looking  up,  I  saw  a  rather 
elderly  man,  with  a  quantity  of  curly  yellow  hair,  frowning 
savagely  on  me  from  the  balcony  over  the  stair.  He  made 
no  sign  of  coming  down,  but  gazed  sternly  at  me  from  his 
eminence. 

''Can  I  see  his  Excellency,  the  Minister?"  said  I,  with 
dignity. 

"Not  if  you  stop  down  there,  not  if  you  continue  to  ring 
the  bell  like  an  alarm  for  fire,  not  if  you  won't  take  the 
trouble  to  come  upstairs." 

I  slowly  began  the  ascent  at  these  words,  pondering  what 
sort  of  a  master  such  a  man  must  needs  have.  As  I  gained 
the  top,  I  found  myself  in  front  of  a  very  short,  very  fat 
man,  dressed  in  a  suit  of  striped  gingham,  like  an  over- 
plethoric  zebra,  and  wheezing  painfully,  in  part  from 
asthma,  in  part  from  agitation.     He  began  again,  — 


I  CALL  AT  THE  BRITISH  LEGATION.  133 

*'What  the  hangman  do  you  mean  by  such  a  row?  Have 
you  no  manners,  no  education?  Where  were  you  brought 
up  that  you  enter  a  dwelling-house  like  a  city  in  storm?" 

"  Who  is  this  insolent  creature  that  dares  to  address  me  in 
this  wise  ?  What  ignorant  menial  can  have  so  far  forgotten 
my  rank  and  his  insignificance  ?  " 

"I'll  tell  you  all  that  presently,"  said  he;  "there's  his 
Excellency's  bell."  And  he  bustled  away,  as  fast  as  his 
unwieldy  size  would  permit,  to  his  master's  room. 

I  was  outraged  and  indignant.  There  was  I,  Potts,  —  no, 
Pottinger,  —  Algernon  Sydney  Pottinger,  —  on  my  way  to 
Italy  and  Greece,  turning  from  my  direct  road  to  consign 
with  safety  a  despatch-bag  which  many  a  less  conscientious 
man  would  have  chucked  out  of  his  carriage  window  and 
forgotten;  there  I  stood  to  be  insulted  by  a  miserable 
stone-polishing,  floor-scrubbing,  carpet-twigging  Haus- 
knecht?  Was  this  to  be  borne?  Was  it  to  be  endured? 
Was  a  man  of  station,  family,  and  attainments  to  be  the 
object  of  such  indignity  ? 

Just  as  I  had  uttered  this  speech  aloud,  a  very  gentle 
voice  addressed  me,  saying,  — 

"Perhaps  I  can  assist  you?  Will  you  be  good  enough  to 
say  what  you  want  ?  " 

I  started  suddenly,  looked  up,  and  whom  should  I  see 
before  me  but  that  Miss  Herbert,  the  beautiful  girl  in  deep 
mourning  that  I  had  met  at  Milford,  and  who  now,  in  the 
same  pale  loveliness,  turned  on  me  a  look  of  kind  and 
gentle  mpaning. 

"Do  you  remember  me?"  said  I,  eagerly.  "Do  you  re- 
member the  traveller  —  a  pale  young  man,  with  a  Glengarry 
cap  and  a  plaid  overcoat  —  who  met  you  at  Milford  ?  " 

"Perfectly,"  said  she,  with  a  slight  twitch  about  the 
mouth  like  a  struggle  against  a  smile.  "Will  you  allow  me 
to  repay  you  now  for  your  politeness  then?  Do  you  wish 
to  see  his  Excellency  ?  " 

I  'm  not  very  sure  what  it  was  I  replied,  but  I  know  well 
what  was  passing  through  my  head.  If  my  thoughts  could 
have  spoken,  it  would  have  been  in  this  wise,  — 

"Angel  of  loveliness,  I  don't  care  a  brass  farthing  for 
his  Excellency.     It  is  not  a  matter  of  the  slightest  moment 


134  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

to  me  if  I  never  set  eyes  on  him.  Let  me  but  speak  to  you, 
tell  you  the  deep  impression  you  have  made  upon  my  heart; 
how,  in  my  ardor  to  serve  you,  1  have  already  been  involved 
in  an  altercation  that  might  have  cost  me  my  life;  how  I  still 
treasure  up  the  few  minutes  I  passed  beside  you  as  the 
Elysian  dream  of  all  my  life  —  " 

"I  am  certain,  sir,"  broke  she  in  while  I  spoke,  I 
repeat,  I  know  not  what, — "I  am  certain,  sir,  that  you 
never  came  here  to  mention  all  this  to  his  Excellency." 

There  was  a  severe  gravity  in  the  way  that  she  said  these 
words  that  recalled  me  to  myself,  but  not  to  any  conscious- 
ness of  what  I  had  been  saying ;  and  so,  in  my  utter  discom- 
fiture, I  blundered  out  something  about  the  lost  despatches 
and  the  cause  of  my  coming. 

*'If  you  '11  wait  a  moment  here,"  said  she,  opening  a  door 
into  a  neatly  furnished  room,  "his  Excellency  shall  hear  of 
your  wish  to  see  him."  And  before  I  could  answer,  she  was 
gone. 

I  was  now  alone,  but  in  what  wild  perplexity  and  anx- 
iety! How  came  she  here?  What  could  be  the  meaning  of 
her  presence  in  this  place?  The  Minister  was  an  unmarried 
man,  so  much  my  host  had  told  me.  How  then  reconcile 
this  fact  with  the  presence  of  one  who  had  left  England  but 
a  few  days  ago,  as  some  said,  to  be  a  governess  or  a  com- 
panion? Oh,  the  agony  of  my  doubts,  the  terrible  agony 
of  my  dire  misgivings !  What  a  world  of  iniquit}?^  do  we 
live  in,  what  vice  and  corruption  are  ever  around  us!  It 
was  but  a  year  or  two  ago,  I  remember,  that  the  "Times  " 
newspaper  had  exposed  the  nefarious  schemes  of  a  wretch 
who  had  deliberately  invented  a  plan  to  entrap  those  most 
unprotected  of  all  females.  The  adventures  of  this  villain 
had  become  part  of  the  police  literature  of  Europe.  Young 
and  attractive  creatures,  induced  to  come  abroad  by  prom- 
ises of  the  most  seductive  kind,  had  been  robbed  by  this 
man  of  all  they  possessed,  and  deserted  here  and  there 
throughout  the  Continent.  I  was  so  horror-stricken  by  the 
terrors  my  mind  had  so  suddenly  conjured  up,  that  I  could 
not  acquire  the  calm  and  coolness  requisite  for  a  process  of 
reasoning.  My  over-active  imagination,  as  usual,  went  off 
with  me,   clearing  obstacles  with  a  sweeping  stride,   and 


I  CALL  AT  THE  BRITISH  LEGATION.  135 

steeplechasing  through  fact  as  though  it  were  only  a  gallop 
over  grass  land. 

"Poor  girl,  Well  might  you  look  confused  and  over- 
whelmed at  meeting  me !  Well  might  the  flush  of  shame  have 
spread  over  your  neck  and  shoulders,  and  well  might  you 
have  hurried  away  from  the  presence  of  one  who  had  known 
you  in  the  days  of  your  happy  innocence !  "  I  am  not  sure 
that  I  did  n't  imagine  I  had  been  her  playfellow  in  child- 
hood, and  that  we  had  been  brought  up  from  infancy  to- 
gether. My  mind  then  addressed  itself  to  the  practical 
question,  What  was  to  be  done?  Was  I  to  turn  my  head 
away  while  this  iniquity  was  being  enacted?  was  I  to  go  on 
my  way,  forgetting  the  seeds  of  that  misery  whose  terrible 
fruits  must  one  day  be  a  shame  and  an  open  ignominy?  or 
was  I  to  arraign  this  man,  great  and  exalted  as  he  was,  and 
say  to  him,  "Is  it  thus  you  represent  before  the  eyes  of  the 
foreigner  the  virtues  of  that  England  we  boast  to  be  the 
model  of  all  morality?  Is  it  thus  you  illustrate  the  habits 
of  your  order?  Do  you  dare  to  profane  what,  by  the  fiction 
of  diplomacy,  is  called  the  soil  of  your  country,  by  a  life 
that  you  dare  not  pursue  at  home?  The  Parliament  shall 
hear  of  it ;  the  '  Times  '  shall  ring  with  it ;  that  magnificent 
institution,  the  common  sense  of  England,  long  sick  of  what 
is  called  secret  diplomacy,  shall  learn  at  last  to  what  uses 
are  applied  the  wiles  and  snares  of  this  deceitful  craft,  its 
extraordinary  and  its  private  missions,  its  hurried  mes- 
sengers with  their  bags  of  corruption  —  " 

I  was  well  "into  my  work,"  and  was  going  along  slap- 
pingly,  when  a  very  trim  footman,  in  a  nankeen  jacket, 
said,  — 

"If  you  will  come  this  way,  sir,  his  Excellency  will  see 

you." 

He  led  me  through  three  or  four  salons  handsomely  fur- 
nished and  ornamented  with  pictures,  the  most  conspicuous 
of  which,  in  each  room,  was  a  life-sized  portrait  of  the  same 
gentleman,  though  in  a  different  costume,  —  now  in  the 
Windsor  uniform,  now  as  a  Guardsman,  and,  lastly,  in  the 
full  dress  of  the  diplomatic  order.  I  had  but  time  to  guess 
that  this  must  be  his  Excellency,  when  the  servant  an- 
nounced me  and  retired. 


136  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

It  is  in  deep  shame  that  I  own  that  the  aspect  of  the 
princely  apartments,  the  silence,  the  implied  awe  of  the 
footman's  subdued  words  as  he  spoke,  had  so  routed  all  my 
intentions  about  calling  his  Excellency  to  account  that  I 
stood  in  his  presence  timid  and  abashed.  It  is  an  ignoble 
confession  wrung  out  of  the  very  heart  of  my  snobbery, 
that  no  sooner  did  I  find  myself  before  that  thin,  pale, 
gray-headed  man,  who  in  a  light  silk  dressing-gown  and 
slippers  sat  writing  away,  than  I  gave  up  my  brief,  and 
inwardly  resigned  my  place  as  a  counsel  for  injured 
innocence. 

He  never  raised  his  head  as  I  entered,  but  continued  his 
occupation  without  noticing  me,  muttering  below  his  breath 
the  words  as  they  fell  from  his  pen.  "Take  a  seat,"  said 
he,  curtly,  at  last.  Perceiving  now  that  he  was  fully 
aware  of  my  presence,  I  sat  down  without  reply.  "This 
bag  is  late,  Mr.  Paynter,"  said  he,  blandly,  as  he  laid  down 
his  pen  and  looked  me  in  the  face. 

"Your  Excellency  will  permit  me,  in  limine^  to  observe 
that  my  name  is  not  Paynter." 

"Possibly,  sir,"  said  he,  haughtily;  "but  you  are  evi- 
dently before  me  for  the  first  time,  or  you  would  know 
that,  like  my  great  colleague  and  friend.  Prince  Metternich, 
I  have  made  it  a  rule  through  life  never  to  burden  my 
memory  with  whatever  can  be  spared  it,  and  of  these  are  the 
patronymics  of  all  subordinate  people;  for  this  reason,  sir, 
and  to  this  end,  every  cook  in  my  establishment  answers  to 
the  name  of  Honore,  my  valet  is  always  Pierre,  my  coach- 
man Jacob,  my  groom  is  Charles,  and  all  foreign  messen- 
gers I  call  Paynter.  The  original  of  that  appellation  is,  I 
fancy,  superannuated  or  dead,  but  he  lives  in  some  twenty 
successors  who  carry  canvas  reticules  as  well  as  he." 

"The  method  may  be  convenient,  sir,  but  it  is  scarcely 
complimentary,"  said  I,  stiffly. 

"Very  convenient,"  said  he,  complacently.  "All  consuls 
I  address  as  Mr.  Sloper.  You  can't  fail  to  perceive  how  it 
saves  time,  and  I  rather  think  that  in  the  end  they  like  it 
themselves.     When  did  you  leave  town  ?  " 

"I  left  on  Saturday  last.  I  arrived  at  Dover  by  the  ex- 
press train,  and  it  was  there  that  the  incident  befell  me 


I  CALL  AT  THE  BRITISH  LEGATION.  137 

by   which  I  have   now   the  honor  to   stand   before    your 
Excellency." 

Instead  of  bestowing  the  slightest  attention  on  this  exor- 
dium of  mine,  he  had  resumed  his  pen  and  was  writing  away 
glibly  as  before.  "Nothing  new  stirring,  when  you  left?" 
said  he,  carelessly. 

"  Nothing,  sir.     But  to  resume  my  narrative  of  explana- , 
tion  — " 

"Come  to  dinner,  Paynter;  we  dine  at  six,"  said  he,, 
rising  hastily ;  and,  opening  a  glass  door  into  a  conserva- 
tory, walked  away,  leaving  me  in  a  mingled  state  of  shame, 
anger,  humiliation,  and,  I  will  state,  of  ludicrous  embarrass- 
ment, which  I  have  no  words  to  express. 

"Dinner!  No,"  exclaimed  I,  "if  the  alternative  were  a 
hard  crust  and  a  glass  of  spring  water !  not  if  1  were  to  fast 
till  this  time  to-morrow!  Dine  with  a  man  who  will  not 
condescend  to  acknowledge  even  my  identity,  who  will  not 
deign  to  call  me  by  my  name,  but  only  consents  to  regard 
me  as  a  pebble  on  the  seashore,  a  blade  of  grass  in  a  wide 
meadow!  Dine  with  him,  to  be  addressed  as  Mr.  Paynter, 
and  to  see  Pierre,  and  Jacob,  and  the  rest  of  them  looking 
on  me  as  one  of  themselves !  By  what  prescriptive  right  doe& 
this  man  dare  to  insult  those  who,  for  aught  he  can  tell,  are 
more  than  his  equals  in  ability  ?  Does  the  accident  —  and 
what  other  can  it  be  than  accident?  —  of  his  station  confer 
this  privilege?  How  would  he  look  if  one  were  to  retort 
with  his  own  impertinence?  What,  for  instance,  if  I  were 
to  say,  *  I  always  call  small  diplomatists  Bluebottles!  You  '11 
not  be  offended  if,  just  for  memory's  sake,  I  address  you 
as  Bluebottle,  —  Mr.  Bluebottle,  of  course '  ?  " 

I  was  in  ecstasies  at  this  thought.  It  seemed  to  vindicate 
all  my  insulted  personality,  all  my  outraged  and  injured 
identity.  "Yes,"  said  I,  "  I  will  dine  with  him;  six  o'clock 
shall  see  me  punctual  to  the  minute,  and  determined  to 
avenge  the  whole  insulted  family  of  the  Paynters.  I  defy 
him  to  assert  that  the  provocation  came  not  from  his  side. 
I  dare  him  to  show  cause  why  I  should  be  the  butt  of  his 
humor,  any  more  than  he  of  mine.  I  will  be  prepared  to 
make  use  of  his  own  exact  words  in  repelling  my  imperti- 
nence, and  say,  '  Sir,  you  have  exactly  embodied  my  mean- 


138  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

ing ;  you  have  to  the  letter  expressed  what  this  morning  I 
felt  on  being  called  Mr.  Paynter;  you  have,  besides  this, 
had  the  opportunity  of  experiencing  the  sort  of  pain  such  an 
impertinence  inflicts,  and  you  are  now  in  a  position  to  guide 
you  as  to  how  far  you  will  persist  in  it  for  the  future. '  " 

I  actually  revelled  in  the  thought  of  this  reprisal,  and 
longed  for  the  moment  to  come  in  which,  indolently  thrown 
back  in  my  chair,  I  should  say,  ''Bluebottle,  pass  the  Ma- 
deira," with  some  comment  on  the  advantage  all  the  Blue- 
bottles have  in  getting  their  wine  duty  free.  Then,  with 
what  sarcastic  irony  I  should  condole  with  him  over  his 
wearisome,  dull  career,  eternally  writing  home  platitudes 
for  blue-books,  making  Grotius  into  bad  grammar,  and 
vamping  up  old  Puffendorf  for  popular  reading.  ''Ain't 
you  sick  of  it  all,  B.-B.  ?"  I  should  say,  familiarly;  "is 
not  the  unreality  of  the  whole  thing  offensive?  'Don't  you 
feel  that  a  despatch  is  a  sort  of  formula  in  which  Madrid 
might  be  inserted  for  Moscow,  and  what  was  said  of  Naples 
might  be  predicated  for  Norway  ?  "  I  disputed  a  long  time 
with  myself  at  what  precise  period  of  the  entertainment  I 
should  unmask  my  battery  and  open  fire.  Should  it  be  in 
the  drawing-room,  before  dinner  ?  Should  it  be  immediately 
after  the  soup,  with  the  first  glass  of  sherry?  Ought  I  to 
wait  till  the  dessert,  and  that  time  when  a  sort  of  easy  in- 
timacy had  been  established  which  might  be  supposed  to 
prompt  candor  and  frankness  ?  Would  it  not  be  in  better 
taste  to  defer  it  till  the  servants  had  left  the  room  ?  To 
expose  him  to  his  household  seemed  scarcely  fair. 

These  were  all  knotty  points,  and  I  revolved  them  long  and 
carefully,  as  I  came  back  to  my  hotel,  through  the  same 
silent  street. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SHAMEFUL  NEGLECT  OF  A  PUBLIC  SERVANT. 

** Don't  keep  a  place  for  me  at  the  table  d'hote  to-day, 
Kramm,"  said  I,  in  an  easy  carelessness;  ''I  dine  with  his 
Excellency.  I  could  n't  well  get  off  the  first  day,  but  to- 
morrow I  promise  you  to  pronounce  upon  your  good  cheer. " 

I  suppose  I  am  not  the  first  man  who  has  derived  conse- 
quence from  the  invitation  it  had  cost  him  misery  to  accept. 
How  many  in  this  world  of  snobbery  have  felt  that  the  one 
sole  recompense  for  long  nights  of  ennui  y^a.^  the  fact  that 
their  names  figured  amongst  the  distinguished  guests  in  the 
next  day's  *'Post"? 

"It  is  not  a  grand  dinner  to-day,  is  it?"  asked  Kramm. 

''No,  no,  merely  a  family  party;  we  are  very  old  chums, 
and  have  much  to  talk  over." 

"You  will  then  go  in  plain  black,  and  with  nothing  but 
your  '  decorations. '  " 

"I  will  wear  none,"  said  I,  "none;  not  even  a  ribbon." 
And  I  turned  away  to  hide  the  shame  and  mortification  his 
suggestion  had  provoked. 

Punctually  at  six  o'clock  I  arrived  at  the  legation;  four 
powdered  footmen  were  in  the  hall,  and  a  decent-looking 
personage  in  black  preceded  me  up  the  stairs,  and  opened 
the  double  doors  into  the  drawing-room,  without,  however, 
announcing  me,  or  paying  the  slightest  attention  to  my 
mention  of  "Mr.  Pottinger." 

Laying  down  his  newspaper  as  I  entered,  his  Excellency 
came  forward  with  his  hand  out,  and  though  it  was  the  least 
imaginable  touch,  and  his  bow  was  grandly  ceremonious, 
his  smile  was  courteous  and  his  manner  bland. 

"Charmed  to  find  you  know  the  merit  of  punctuality," 
said  he.     "To  the  untravelled  English,  six  means  seven,  or 


140  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

even  later.  You  may  serve  dinner,  Robins.  Strange 
weather  we  are  having,"  continued  he,  turning  to  me; 
"cold,  raw,  and  uncongenial." 

We  talked  "barometer"  till,  the  door  opening,  the  mattre 
d' hotel  announced,  ''His  Excellency  is  served;"  a  rather 
un polite  mode,  I  thought,  of  ignoring  his  company,  and 
which  was  even  more  strongly  impressed  by  the  fact  that  he 
walked  in  first,  leaving  me  to  follow. 

At  the  table  a  third  ''cover"  was  just  being  speedily 
removed  as  we  entered,  a  fact  that  smote  at  my  heart  like  a 
blow.  The  dinner  began,  and  went  on  with  little  said;  a 
faint  question  from  the  Minister  as  to  what  the  dish  con- 
tained and  a  whispered  reply  constituted  most  of  the  talk, 
and  an  occasional  cold  recommendation  to  me  to  try  this  or 
that  entree.  It  was  admirable  in  all  its  details,  the  cookery 
exquisite,  the  wines  delicious,  but  there  was  an  oppression 
in  the  solemnity  of  it  all  that  made  me  sigh  repeatedly. 
Had  the  butler  been  serving  a  high  mass,  his  motions  at  the 
sideboard  could  scarcely  have  been  more  reverential. 

"If  you  don't  object  to  the  open  air,  we  '11  take  our  coffee 
on  the  terrace,"  said  his  Excellency;  and  we  soon  found 
ourselves  on  a  most  charming  elevation,  surrounded  on 
three  sides  with  orange-trees,  the  fourth  opening  a  magnifi- 
cent view  over  a  fine  landscape  with  the  Taunus  mountains 
in  the  distance. 

"I  can  offer  you,  at  least,  a  good  cigar,"  said  the  Minis- 
ter, as  he  selected  with  great  care  two  from  a  number  on  a 
silver  plateau  before  him.  "These,  I  think,  you  will  find 
recommend  able;  they  are  grown  for  myself  at  Cuba,  and 
prepared  after  a  receipt  only  known  to  one  family." 

In  all  this  there  was  a  dignified  civility,  not  at  all  like 
the  impertinent  freedom  of  his  manner  in  the  morning. 
He  never,  besides,  addressed  me  as  Mr.  Paynter;  in  fact,  he 
did  not  advert  to  a  name  at  all,  not  giving  me  the  slightest 
pretext  for  that  reprisal  I  had  come  so  charged  with ;  and, 
as  to  opening  the  campaign  myself,  I  'd  as  soon  have  com- 
menced acquaintance  with  a  tiger  by  a  pull  at  his  tail.  We 
were  now  alone;  the  servants  had  retired,  and  there  we  sat, 
silently  smoking  our  cigars  in  apparent  ease,  but  one  of  us,. 
at  least,  in  a  frame  of  mind  the  very  opposite  to  tranquillity. 


SHAMEFUL  NEGLECT  OF  A  PUBLIC  SEKVANT.      141 

What  a  rush  and  conflict  of  thought  was  in  my  head !  Why 
had  not  she  dined  with  us?  Was  her  position  such  as 
that  the  presence  of  a  stranger  became  an  embarrassment? 
Good  heaven!  was  I  to  suppose  this,  that,  and  the  other? 
What  was  there  in  this  man  that  so  imposed  on  me,  that 
when  1  wanted  to  speak  I  only  could  sigh,  and  that  I  felt  his 
presence  like  some  overpowering  spell?  It  was  that  calm, 
self-contained,  quiet  manner  —  cold  rather  than  austere, 
courteous  without  cordiality  —  that  chilled  me  to  the  very 
marrow  of  my  bones.  Lecture  him  on  the  private  moralities 
of  his  life !  ask  him  to  render  me  an  account  of  his  actions ! 
address  him  as  Bluebottle !  — 

"With  such  tobacco  as  that,  one  can  drink  Bordeaux," 
said  he.     "Help  yourself." 

And  I  did  help  myself,  —  freely,  repeatedly.  I  drank 
for  courage,  as  a  man  might  drink  from  thirst  or  fever, 
or  for  strength  in  a  moment  of  fainting  debility.  The 
wine  was  exquisite,  and  my  heart  beat  more  forcibly,  and 
I  felt  it. 

I  cannot  follow  very  connectedly  the  course  of  events ;  1 
neither  know  how  the  conversation  glided  into  politics,  nor 
what  I  said  on  that  subject.  As  to  the  steps  by  which  I 
succeeded  in  obtaining  his  Excellency's  confidence,  I  know 
as  little  as  a  man  does  of  the  precise  moment  in  which  he 
is  wet  through  in  a  Scotch  mist.  I  have  a  dim  memory  of 
talking  in  a  very  dictatorial  voice,  and  continually  refer- 
ring to  my  "entrance  into  public  life,"  with  reference  to 
what  Peel  "said,"  and  what  the  Duke  "told  me." 

"What's  the  use  of  writing  home?"  said  his  Excellency, 
in  a  desponding  voice.  "For  the  last  five  years  I  have 
called  attention  to  what  is  going  on  here ;  nobody  minds, 
nobody  heeds  it.  Open  any  blue-book  you  like,  and  will  you 
find  one  solitary  despatch  from  Hesse-Kalbbratonstadt  ?  " 

"I  cannot  call  one  to  mind." 

"Of  course  you  can't.  Would  you  believe  it,  when  the 
Zeringer  party  went  out,  and  the  Schlaffdorfers  came  in,  I 
was  rebuked  —  actually  rebuked  —  for  sending  off'  a  special 
messenger  with  the  news?  And  then  came  out  a  despatch 
in  cipher,  which  being  interpreted  contained  this  stupid 
doggerel :  — 


142  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

"  *  Strange  that  such  difference  should  be 
'Twixt  Tweedle-dum  and  Tweedle-dee.' 

"I  ask,  sir,  is  it  thus  the  affairs  of  a  great  country  can 
be  carried  on?  The  efforts  of  Russia  here  are  incessant:  a 
certain  personage — I  will  mention  no  names — loves  caviare, 
he  likes  it  fresh,  there  is  a  special  estaffette  established  to 
bring  it!  I  learned,  by  the  most  insidious  researches,  his 
fondness  for  English  cheese ;  I  lost  no  time  in  putting  the 
fact  before  the  cabinet  I  represented,  that  while  timid  men 
looked  tremblingly  towards  France,  the  thoughtful  politician 
saw  the  peril  of  Hesse-Kalbbratonstadt.  I  urged  them  to 
lose  no  time :  '  The  Grand-Duchess  has  immense  influence ; 
countermine  her,*  said  I,  — *  countermine  her  with  a  Stil- 
ton ; '  and,  would  you  believe  it,  sir,  they  have  not  so  much 
as  sent  out  a  Cheddar !  What  will  the  people  of  England 
say  one  of  these  days  when  they  learn,  as  learn  they  shall, 
that  at  this  mission  here  I  am  alone ;  that  I  have  neither 
secretary  nor  attache,  paid  or  unpaid ;  that  since  the  Cri- 
mean War  the  whole  weight  of  the  legation  has  been  thrown 
upon  me :  nor  is  this  all ;  but  that  a  systematic  course  of 
treachery  —  I  can't  call  it  lies  —  has  been  adopted  to  entrap 
me,  if  such  were  possible?  My  despatches  are  unreplied 
to,  my  questions  all  unanswered.  I  stand  fiere  with  the 
peace  of  Europe  in  my  hands,  and  none  to  counsel  nor 
advise  me.  What  will  you  say,  sir,  to  the  very  last  de- 
spatch I  have  received  from  Downing  Street?  It  runs 
thus : — 

*'  *I  am  instructed  by  his  Lordship  to  inform  you,  that  he  views 
with  indifference  your  statement  of  the  internal  condition  of  the 
grand-duchy,  but  is  much  struck  by  your  charge  for  sealing-wax. 

"  *  I  have,  sir,  &c.' 

"This  is  no  longer  to  be  endured.  A  public  servant  who 
has  filled  some  of  the  most  responsible  of  oflScial  stations, 
—  I  was  eleven  years  at  Tragota,  in  the  Argentine  Repub- 
lic; I  was  a  charge  at  Oohululoo  for  eight  months,  the  only 
European  who  ever  survived  an  autumn  there;  they  then 
sent  me  special  to  Cabanhos  to  negotiate  the  Salt-sprat 
treaty ;  after  that  —  " 


SHAMEFUL  NEGLECT  OF  A  PUBLIC  SERVANT.      143 

Here  my  senses  grew  muddy ;  the  gray  dim  light,  the  soft 
influences  of  a  good  dinner  and  a  sufficiency  of  wine,  the 
drowsy  tenor  of  the  Minister's  voice,  all  conspired,  and  I 
slept  as  soundly  as  if  in  my  bed.  My  next  conscious  moment 
was  as  his  Excellency  moved  his  chair  back,  and  said,  — 

*'I  think  a  cup  of  tea  would  be  pleasant;  let  us  come  into 
the  drawing-room." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

I   LECTURE   THE   AMBASSADOR'S    SISTER. 

On  entering  the  drawing-room,  his  Excellency  presented  me 
to  an  elderly  lady,  very  thin,  and  very  wrinkled,  who  received 
me  with  a  cold  dignity,  and  then  went  on  with  her  crochet- 
work.  I  could  not  catch  her  name,  nor,  indeed,  was  I 
thinking  of  it ;  my  whole  mind  was  bent  upon  the  question, 
Who  could  she  be?  For  what  object  was  she  there? 
All  my  terrible  doubts  of  the  morning  now  rushed  forcibly 
back  to  my  memory,  and  I  felt  that  never  had  I  detested  a 
human  being  with  the  hate  I  experienced  for  her.  The  pre- 
tentious stiffness  of  her  manner,  the  haughty  self-possession 
she  wore,  were  positive  outrages;  and  as  I  looked  at  her, 
I  felt  myself  muttering,  "Don't  imagine  that  your  heavy 
black  moire,  or  your  rich  falls  of  lace,  impose  upon  me. 
Never  fancy  that  this  mock  austerity  deceives  one  who  reads 
human  nature  as  he  reads  large  print.  I  know,  and  I  abhor 
you,  old  woman  !  That  a  man  should  be  to  the  other  sex  as 
a  wolf  to  the  fold,  the  sad  experience  of  daily  life  too  often 
teaches;  but  that  a  woman  should  be  false  to  woman,  that 
all  the  gentle  instincts  we  love  to  think  feminine,  should  be 
debased  to  treachery  and  degraded  into  snares  for  betrayal, 
—  this  is  an  offence  that  cries  aloud  to  Heaven ! 

''No  more  tea,  —  none!"  cried  I,  with  -an  energy  that 
nearly  made  the  footman  let  the  tray  fall,  and  so  far  startled 
the  old  lady  that  she  dropped  her  knitting  with  a  faint  cry. 
As  for  his  Excellency,  he  had  covered  his  face  with  the 
"Globe,"  and,  I  believe,  was  fast  asleep. 

I  looked  about  for  my  hat  to  take  my  leave,  when  a 
sudden  thought  struck  me.  "I  will  stay.  I  will  sit  down 
-beside  this  old  creature,  and,  for  once  at  least  in  her  mis- 


I  LECTURE  THE  AMBASSADOR'S  SISTER.  145 

erable  life,  she  shall  hear  from  the  lips  of  a  man  a  language 
that  is  not  that  of  the  debauchee.  Who  knows  what  effect 
one  honest  word  of  a  true-hearted  man  may  not  work?  I 
will  try,  at  all  events,"  said  I,  and  approached  her.  She 
did  not,  as  I  expected,  make  room  for  me  on  the  sofa  beside 
her,  and  I  was,  therefore,  obliged  to  take  a  chair  in  front. 
This  was  so  far  awkward  that  it  looked  formal;  it  gave 
somewhat  the  character  of  accusation  to  my  position,  and  I 
decided  to  obviate  the  difficulty  by  assuming  a  light,  easy, 
cheerful  manner  at  first,  as  though  I  suspected  nothing. 

"  It's  a  pleasant  little  capital,  this  Kalbbratonstadt,"  said 
I,  as  I  lay  back  in  my  chair. 

"Is  it?"  said  she,  dryly,  without  looking  up  from  her 
work. 

"  Well,  I  mean,"  said  I,  ''it  seems  to  have  its  reasonable 
share  of  resources.  They  have  their  theatre,  and  their 
music  garden,  and  their  promenades,  and  their  drives  to  — 
to  —  " 

''You'll  find  all  the  names  set  down  there,"  said  she, 
handing  me  a  copy  of  Murray's  "Handbook"  that  lay 
beside  her. 

"I  care  less  for  names  than  facts,  madam,"  said  I, 
angrily,  for  her  retort  had  stung  me,  and  routed  all  my  pre- 
vious intention  of  a  smooth  approach  to  the  fortress.  "  I 
am  one  of  those  unfashionable  people  who  never  think  the 
better  of  vice  because  it  wears  French  gloves,  and  goes  per- 
fumed with  Ess  bouquet." 

She  took  off  her  spectacles,  wiped  them,  looked  at  me, 
and  went  on  with  her  work  without  speaking. 

"  If  I  appear  abrupt,  madam,"  said  I,  "in  this  opening, 
it  is  because  the  opportunity  I  now  enjoy  may  never  occur 
again,  and  may  be  of  the  briefest  even  now.  We  meet 
by  what  many  would  call  an  accident,  —  one  of  those  inci- 
dents which  the  thoughtless  call  chance  directed  my  steps  to 
this  place ;  let  me  hope  that  that  which  seemed  a  hazard 
may  bear  all  the  fruits  of  maturest  combination,  and  that 
the  weak  words  of  one  frail  even  as  yourself  may  not  be 
heard  by  you  in  vain.  Let  me,  therefore,  ask  you  one 
question,  —  only  one,  —  and  give  me  an  honest  answer  to 
it." 

10 


146  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

'*  You  are  a  very  singular  person,"  said  she,  "  and  seem 
to  have  strangely  forgotten  the  very  simple  circumstance 
that  we  meet  for  the  first  time  now." 

' '  I  know  it,  I  feel  it ;  and  that  it  may  also  be  for  the  last 
and  only  time  is  my  reason  for  this  appeal  to  you.  There 
are  persons  who,  seeing  you  here,  would  treat  you  with  a 
mock  deference,  address  you  with  a  counterfeit  respect,  and 
go  their  ways ;  who  would  say  to  their  selfish  hearts,  '  It  is 
no  concern  of  mine ;  why  should  it  trouble  me  ? '  But  I  am 
not  one  of  these.  I  carry  a  conscience  in  my  breast ;  a  con- 
science that  holds  its  daily  court,  and  will  even  to-morrow  ask 
me,  '  Have  you  been  truthful,  have  you  been  faithful  ?  When 
the  occasion  served  to  warn  a  fellow-creature  of  the  shoal 
before  him,  did  you  cry  out,  ''  Take  soundings !  you  are  in 
shallow  water,"  or  did  you  with  slippery  phrases  gloss  over 
the  peril,  because  it  involved  no  danger  to  yourself? '  " 

*'  Would  that  same  conscience  be  kind  enough  to  suggest 
that  your  present  conduct  is  an  impertinence,  sir?" 

"So  it  might,  madam ;  just  as  the  pilot  is  impertinent 
when  he  cries  out,  '  Hard,  port !  breakers  ahead !  '  " 

"I  am  therefore  to  infer,  sir,"  said  she,  with  a  calm  dig- 
nity, "that  my  approach  to  a  secret  danger — of  which  I 
can  have  no  knowledge  —  is  a  suflScient  excuse  fpr  the 
employment  of  language  on  your  part,  that,  under  a  less 
urgent  plea,  had  been  offensive?" 

"  You  are,"  said  I,  boldly. 

*'  Speak  out,  then,  sir,  and  declare  what  it  is." 

"  Nay,  madam,  if  the  warning  find  no  echo  within,  my 
words  are  useless.    I  have  said  I  would  ask  you  a  question." 

"  Well,  sir,  do  so." 

"Will  you  answer  it  frankly?  Will  you  give  it  all  the 
weight  and  influence  it  should  bear,  and  reply  to  it  with  that 
truthful  spirit  that  conceals  nothing?" 

"What  is  your  question,  sir?  You  had  better  be  speedy 
with  it,  for  I  don't  much  trust  to  my  continued  patience." 

I  arose  at  this,  and,  passing  behind  the  back  of  my  chair, 
leaned  my  arms  on  the  upper  rail,  so  as  to  confront  her 
directly ;  and  then,  in  the  voice  of  an  accusing  angel,  I  said, 
**  Old  woman,  do  you  know  where  you  are  going?" 

"I  protest,  sir,"  said  she,  rising,  with  an  indignation  I 


I  LECTURE  THE  AMBASSADOR'S   SISTER.  147 

shall  not  forget — "I   protest,  sir,  you  make  me   actually 
doubt  if  I  know  where  I  am !  " 

'*  Then  let  me  tell  you,  madam,"  said  I,  with  the  voice  of 
one  determined  to  strike  terror  into  her  heart —  "  let  me  tell 
you ;  and  may  my  words  have  the  power  to  awaken  you, 
even  now,  to  the  dreadful  consequences  of  what  you  are 
about ! " 

"Shalley!  S  h  alley !  "  cried  she  in  amazement,  ''is  this 
gentleman  deranged,  or  is  it  but  the  passing  effect  of  your 
conviviality?"  And  with  this  she  swept  out  of  the  room, 
leaving  me  there  alone,  for  I  now  perceived  —  what  seemed 
also  to  have  escaped  her  —  that  the  Minister  had  slipped 
quietly  away  some  time  before,  and  was  doubtless  at  that 
same  moment  in  the  profoundest  of  slumbers. 

I  took  my  departure  at  once.  There  was  no  leave-taking 
to  delay  me,  and  I  left  the  house  in  a  mood  little  according 
with  the  spirit  of  one  who  had  partaken  of  its  hospitalities ; 
I  am  constrained  to  admit  I  was  the  very  reverse  of  satisfied 
with  myself.  It  was  cowardly  and  mean  of  me  to  wreak  my 
anger  on  that  old  woman,  and  not  upon  him  who  was  the 
really  great  offender.  He  it  was  I  should  have  arraigned ; 
and  with  the  employment  of  a  little  artifice  and  some  tact, 
how  terrible  I  might  have  made  even  my  jesting  levity  !  how 
sarcastic  my  sneers  at  fashionable  vice !  Affecting  utter 
ignorance  about  his  life  and  habits,  I  could  have  incidentally 
thrown  out  little  episodes  of  all  the  men  who  have  wrecked 
their  fortunes  by  abandoned  habits.  I  would  have  pointed 
to  this  man  who  made  a  brilliant  opening  in  the  House,  and 
that  who  had  acquired  such  celebrity  at  the  Bar;  I  would 
have  shown  the  rising  statesman  tarnished,  the  future  chief 
justice  disqualified;  I  would  have  said,  ''  Let  no  man,  how- 
ever modest  his  character  or  unfrequented  his  locality, 
imagine  that  the  world  takes  no  note  of  his  conduct;  in 
every  class  he  is  judged  by  his  peers,  and  you  and  I,  Double- 
ton,  will  as  assuredly  be  arraigned  before  the  bar  of  society 
as  the  pickpocket  will  be  charged  before  the  beak !  " 

I  continued  to  revolve  these  and  such  like  thoughts 
throughout  the  entire  night.  The  wine  I  had  drunk  fevered 
and  excited  me,  and  added  to  that  disturbed  state  which  my 
own   self-accusings  provoked.     Doubts,  too,  flitted   across 


148  A  DAY'S  EIDE. 

my  mind  whether  I  ought  not  to  have  maintained  a  perfect 
silence  towards  the  others,  and  reserved  all  my  eloquence 
for  the  poor  girl  herself.  I  imagined  myself  taking  her 
hand  between  both  mine,  while,  with  averted  head,  she 
sobbed  as  if  her  heart  would  break,  and,  saying,  ''  Be  com- 
forted, poor  stricken  deer !  be  comforted ;  I  know  all.  One 
who  is  far  from  perfect  himself,  sorrows  with  and  com- 
passionates you;  he  will  be  your  friend,  your  adviser,  your 
protector.  I  will  restore  you  to  that  home  you  quitted  in 
innocence.  I  will  bring  you  back  to  that  honeysuckled 
porch  where  your  pure  heart  expanded  in  home  affections." 
Nothing  shall  equal  the  refined  delicacy  of  my  manner ;  that 
mingled  reserve  and  kindness  —  a  sort  of  cross  between  a 
half-brother  and  a  canon  of  St.  Paul's  —  shall  win  her  over 
to  repentance,  and  then  to  peace.  How  I  fancied  myself  at 
intervals  of  time  visiting  that  cottage,  going,  as  the  gardener 
watches  some  cherished  plant,  to  gaze  on  the  growing 
strength  I  had  nurtured,  and  enjoy  the  luxury  of  seeing  the 
once  drooping  flower  expanding  into  fresh  loveliness  and 
perfume.  ''  Yes,  Potts,  this  would  form  one  of  those  epi- 
sodes you  have  so  often  longed  to  realize."  And  then  I 
went  on  to  fancy  a  long  heroic  struggle  between  my  love  and 
that  sentiment  of  respect  for  worldly  opinion  which  is  dear 
to  every  man,  the  years  of  conflict  wearing  me  down  in 
health,  but  exalting  me  immensely  in  every  moral  consid- 
eration. Let  the  hour  of  crowning  victory  at  last  come,  I 
should  take  her  to  my  bosom  and  say,  ' '  There  is  rest  for 
thee  here ! " 

'*  His  Excellency  begs  that  you  will  call  at  the  legation,  as 
early  as  you  can,  this  morning,"  said  a  waiter,  entering  with 
the  breakfast  tray ;  and  I  now  perceived  that  I  had  never 
gone  to  bed,  or  closed  my  eyes  during  the  night. 

*'  How  did  this  message  come?  "  I  asked. 

"  By  the  chasseur  of  his  Excellency." 

"And  how  addressed?" 

" '  To  the  gentleman  who  dined  yesterday  at  the  legation.'  '* 

I  asked  these  questions  to  ascertain  how  far  he  persisted 
in  the  impertinence  of  giving  me  a  name  that  was  not  mine, 
and  I  was  glad  to  find  that  on  this  occasion  no  transgression 
had  occurred. 


I  LECTUKE  THE  AMBASSADOR'S  SISTER.  149 

I  hesitated  considerably  about  going  to  him.  Was  I  to 
accept  that  slippery  morality  that  says,  "  I  see  no  more 
than  I  please  in  the  man  I  dine  with,"  or  was  I  to  go 
boldly  on  and  denounce  this  offender  to  himself?  What  if 
he  were  to  say,  "Potts,  let  us  play  fair;  put  your  own 
cards  on  the  table,  and  let  us  see  are  you  always  on  the 
square?  Who  is  your  father?  how  does  he  live?  Why 
have  you  left  home,  and  how?  What  of  that  horse  you 
have  —  " 

' '  No,  no,  not  stolen  —  on  my  honor,  not  stolen  !  " 
"  Well,  ain't  it  ugly?  Isn't  the  story  one  that  any  relat- 
ing might,  without  even  a  spice  of  malevolence,  make  mar- 
vellously disagreeable  ?  Is  the  tale  such  as  you  'd  wish  to 
herald  you  into  any  society  you  desired  to  mix  with  ?  "  It 
was  in  this  high,  easy,  and  truly  companionable  style  that 
conscience  kept  me  company,  while  I  ate  two  eggs  and  a 
plate  of  buttered  toast.  "  After  all,"  thought  I,  "  might 
it  not  prove  a  great  mistake  not  to  wait  on  him  ?  How  if, 
in  our  talk  over  politics  last  night,  I  may  have  dropped  some 
remarkable  expression,  a  keen  appreciation  of  some  states- 
man, an  extraordinary  prediction  of  some  coming  crisis? 
Maybe  it  is  to  question  me  more  fully  about  my  '  views ' 
of  the  state  of  Europe."  Now  I  am  rather  given  to 
"  views  of  the  state  of  Europe."  I  like  that  game  of 
patience,  formed  by  shuffling  up  all  the  governments  of 
the  Continent,  and  then  seeing  who  is  to  have  the  most 
*' tricks,"  who's  to  win  all  the  kings,  and  who  the  knaves. 
''Yes,"  thought  I,  ''this  is  what  he  is  at.  These  diplo- 
matic people  are  consummately  clever  at  pumping;  their 
great  skill  consists  in  extracting  information  from  others 
and  adapting  it  to  their  own  uses.  Their  social  condition 
confers  the  great  advantage  of  intercourse  with  whatever 
is  remarkable  for  station,  influence,  and  ability ;  and  I 
think  I  hear  his  Excellency  muttering  to  himself,  '  remark- 
able man  that  —  large  views  —  great  reach  of  thought  — 
wish  I  could  see  more  of  him ;  must  try  what  polite  atten- 
tions may  accomplish.'  Well,"  said  I,  with  a  half  sigh,  "it 
is  the  old  story,  Sic  vos  non  vobis;  and  I  suppose  it  is 
one  of  the  curses  on  Irishmen  that,  from  Edmund  Burke 
to  Potts,  they  should  be  doomed  to  cram  others.     I  will  go. 


150  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

What  signifies  it  to  me?  I  am  none  the  poorer  in  dis- 
pensing my  knowledge  than  is  the  nightingale  in  discours- 
ing her  sweet  music  to  the  night  air,  and  flooding  the 
groves  with  waves  of  melody :  like  her,  I  give  of  an  afflu- 
ence that  never  fails  me."  And  so  I  set  out  for  the 
legation. 

As  I  walked  along  through  the  garden,  a  trimly-dressed 
French  maid  passed  me,  turned,  and  repassed,  with  a  look 
that  had  a  certain  significance.  ''It  was  monsieur  dined 
here  yesterday?  "  said  she,  interrogatively;  and  as  I  smiled 
assent,  she  handed  me  a  very  small  sealed  note,  and 
disappeared. 

It  bore  no  address  but  the  word  "  Mr. ;  "  a  strange, 

not  very  ceremonious  direction.  *'  But,  poor  girl !  "  thought 
I,  "  she  knows  me  not  as  Potts,  but  as  Protector.  I  am 
not  the  individual,  but  the  representative  of  that  wide-spread 
benevolence  that  succors  the  weak  and  consoles  the  afflicted. 
I  wonder  has  she  been  touched  by  my  devotion?  has  she 
imagined  —  oh,  that  she  would !  —  that  I  have  followed  her 
hither,  that  I  have  sworn  a  vow  to  rescue  and  to  save  her? 
Or  is  this  note  the  cry  of  a  sorrow-struck  spirit,  saying, 
'  Come  to  my  aid  ere  I  perish  '  ?  " 

My  fingers  trembled  as  I  broke  the  seal ;  I  had  to  wipe 
a  tear  from  my  eye  ere  I  could  begin  to  read.  My  agita- 
tion was  great ;  it  was  soon  to  be  greater.  The  note  con- 
tained very  few  words ;  they  were  these :  — 

"Sir,  —  I  have  not  communicated  to  my  brother,  Sir  Shalley 
Doubleton,  any  circumstance  of  your  unaccountable  conduct  yester- 
day evening.  I  hope  that  my  reserve  will  be  appreciated  by  you, 
and 

"  I  am,  your  faithful  servant, 

"Martha  Keats.** 

I  did  not  faint,  but  I  sat  down  on  the  grass,  sick  and 
faint,  and  I  felt  the  great  drops  of  cold  perspiration  burst 
out  over  my  forehead  and  temples.  "  So,"  muttered  I, 
''the  venerable  person  I  have  been  lecturing  is  his  Excel- 
lency's own  sister!  My  exhortations  to  a  changed  life 
have  been  addressed  to  a  lady  doubtless  as  rigid  in  morals 
as  austere  in  manners."     Though  I  could  recall  none  of  the 


I  LECTURE  THE  AMBASSADOR'S  SISTER.  151 

words  I  employed,  I  remembered  but  too  well  the  lesson  I 
intended  to  convey,  and  I  shuddered  with  disgust  at  my  own 
conduct.  Many  a  time  have  I  heard  severest  censure  on 
the  preacher  who  has  from  the  pulpit  scattered  words  of 
doubtful  application  to  the  sinners  beneath;  but  here  was 
I  making  a  direct  and  most  odious  attack  upon  the  life  and 
habits  of  a  lady  of  immaculate  behavior  !  Oh,  it  was  too  — 
too  bad !  A  whole  year  of  sackcloth  and  ashes  would  not 
be  penance  for  such  iniquity.  How  could  she  have  forgiven 
it?  What  consummate  charity  enabled  her  to  pardon  an 
offence  so  gross  and  so  gratuitous  ?  Or  is  it  that  she  foresaw 
consequences  so  grave,  in  the  event  of  disclosure,  that  she 
dreaded  to  provoke  them?  What  might  not  an  angry 
brother,  in  such  a  case,  be  warranted  in  doing?  Would 
the  world  call  any  vengeance  exorbitant?  I  studied  her 
last  phrase  over  and  over,  *'  I  hope  my  reserve  will  be 
appreciated  by  you."  This  may  mean,  "  I  reserve  the 
charge,  —  I  hold  it  over  you  as  a  bail  bond  for  the  future ; 
diverge  ever  so  little  from  the  straight  road,  and  I  will 
aay,  '  Potts,  stand  forward  and  listen  to  your  indictment.* 
She  may  have  some  terrible  task  in  view  for  me,  some 
perilous  achievement,  which  I  cannot  now  refuse.  This  old 
woman  may  be  to  me  as  was  the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  to 
Sinbad.  I  may  be  fated  to  carry  her  forever  on  my  back, 
and  the  dread  of  her  be  a  living  nightmare  to  me.  "At 
such  a  price,  existence  has  no  value,"  said  I,  in  despair. 
''  Worse  even  than  the  bondage  is  the  feeling  that  I  am  no 
longer,  to  my  own  heart,  the  great  creature  I  love  to  think 
myself.  Instead  of  Potts  the  generous,  the  high-spirited, 
the  confiding,  the  self-denying,  I  am  Potts  the  timorous, 
the  terror-stricken,  and  the  slave." 

Out  of  my  long  and  painful  musings  on  the  subject,  I 
bethought  me  of  a  course  to  take.  I  would  go  to  her  and 
say:  — 

''  Listen  to  this  parable.  I  remember  once,  when  a 
member  of  the  phrenological  club,  a  stupid  jest  was  played 
off  upon  the  society  by  some  one  presenting  us  with  the 
cast  of  a  well-known  murderer's  skull,  and  asking  for  our 
interpretations  of  its  development.  We  gave  them  with 
every  care  and  deliberation :  we  pointed  out  the  fatal  pro- 


152  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

tuberances  of  crime,  and  indicated  the  depressions,  which 
showed  the  absence  of  all  prudential  restraints ;  we  demon- 
strated all  the  evidences  of  badness  that  were  there,  and 
proved  that,  with  such  a  head,  a  man  must  have  thought 
killing  no  murder.  The  rejoinder  to  our  politeness  was  a 
small  box  that  arrived  by  the  mail,  labelled,  *  the  original  of 
the  cast  forwarded  on  the  14th.'  We  opened  it,  and  found 
a  pumpkin  !  The  foolish  jester  fancied  that  he  had  cast  an 
indelible  stain  upon  phrenology,  quite  forgetting  the  fact 
that  his  pumpkin  had  personated  a  skull  which,  had  it  ever 
existed,  would  have  presented  the  characteristics  we  gave 
it."  I  would  say,  "  Now,  madam,  make  the  application, 
and  say,  do  you  not  rather  commend  than  condemn  ?  are  you 
not  more  ready  to  applaud  than  upbraid  me  ?  " 

Second  thoughts  rather  deterred  me  from  this  plan ;  the 
figurative  line  is  often  dangerous  with  elderly  people.  It  is 
just  as  likely  she  would  mistake  the  whole  force  of  my  illus- 
tration, and  bluntly  say,  "  I  'd  beg  to  remark,  sir,  I  am  not 
a  pumpkin !  " 

''No;  I  will  not  adventure  on  this  path.  There  is  no 
need  that  I  should  ever  meet  her  again,  or,  if  I  should,  we 
may  meet  as  utter  strangers."  This  resolve  made,  I  arose 
boldly,  and  walked  on  towards  the  house. 

His  Excellency,  I  learned,  was  at  home,  and  had  been  for 
some  time  expecting  me.  I  found  him  in  his  morning  room, 
in  the  same  costume  and  same  occupation  as  on  the  day 
before. 

''There's  the  'Times,'"  said  he,  as  I  entered;  "I  shall 
be  ready  for  you  presently ;  "  and  worked  away  without  lift- 
ing his  head. 

Affecting  to  read,  I  set  myself  to  regard  him  with  atten- 
tion. Vast  piles  of  papers  lay  around  him  on  every  side ; 
the  whole  table,  and  even  the  floor  at  his  feet,  was  littered 
with  them.  "Would,"  thought  I,  —  "would  that  these 
writers  for  the  Radical  press,  these  scurrilous  penny-a-liners 
who  inveigh  against  a  bloated  and  pampered  aristocracy, 
could  just  witness  the  daily  life  of  labor  of  one  of  these 
spoiled  children  of  Fortune.  Here  is  this  man,  doubtless 
reared  in  ease  and  affluence,  and  see  him,  how  he  toils  away, 
from  sundown  to  dawn,  unravelling  the  schemes,  tracing  the 
wiles,  and  exposing  the  snares  of  these  crafty  foreigners. 


I  LECTURE  THE  AMBASSADOR'S  SISTER.  153 

Hark  !  he  is  muttering  over  the  subtle  sentence  he  has  just 
written :  '  I  am  much  grieved  about  Maria's  little  girl,  but  I 
hope  she  will  escape  being  marked  by  the  malady.' "  A  groan 
that  broke  from  me  here  startled  him,  and  he  looked  up. 

'*  Ah!  yes,  by  the  way,  I  want  you,  Paynter." 

"  I  am  not  Paynter,  your  Excellency,  my  name  is  —  " 

*'  Of  course,  you  have  your  own  name  for  your  own  pecu- 
liar set;  but  don't  interrupt.  I  have  a  special  service  for 
you,  and  will  put  it  in  the  '  extraordinaries. '  I  have  taken 
a  little  villa  on  the  Lake  of  Como  for  my  sister,  but,  from 
the  pressure  of  political  events,  I  am  not  able  to  accompany 
her  there.  She  is  a  very  timid  traveller,  and  cannot  possibly 
go  alone.  You  '11  take  charge  of  her,  therefore,  Paynter,  — 
there,  don't  be  fussy,  —  you  '11  take  charge  of  her  and  a  young 
lady  who  is  with  her,  and  you  '11  see  them  housed  and  estab- 
lished there.  I  suppose  she  will  prefer  to  travel  slowly, 
some  thirty  miles  or  so  a  day,  post  horses  always,  and 
strictly  avoiding  railroads  ;  but  you  can  talk  it  over  together 
yourselves.     There  was  a  Bobus  to  have  come  out  —  " 

"  A  Bobus !  " 

*'I  mean  a  doctor,  —  I  call  every  doctor,  Bobus, — but 
something  has  detained  him,  or,  indeed,  I  believe  he  was 
drowned ;  at  all  events,  he 's  not  come,  and  you  '11  have  to 
learn  how  to  measure  out  ether  and  drop  morphine ;  the 
'  companion '  will  help  you.  And  keep  an  account  of  your 
expenses,  Paynter, — your  own  expenses  for  F.  O.,  —  and 
don't  let  her  fall  sick  at  any  out-of-the-way  place,  which  she 
has  rather  a  knack  of  doing;  and,  above  all,  don't  telegraph 
on  any  account.     Come  and  dine,  —  six." 

"  If  you  will  excuse  me  at  dinner,  I  shall  be  obliged.  I 
have  a  sort  of  half  engagement." 

"  Come  in  about  nine,  then,"  said  he,  ''for  she'd  like  to 
talk  over  some  matters.  Look  out  for  a  carriage,  too;  I 
don't  fancy  giving  mine  if  you  can  get  another.  One  of 
those  great  roomy  German  things  with  a  cabriolet  front, 
for  Miss  —  I  forget  her  name  —  would  prefer  a  place  out- 
side. Kramm,  the  landlord,  can  help  you  to  search  for  one ; 
and  let  it  be  dusted  and  aired  and  fumigated  and  the  drag 
examined  and  the  axles  greased,  —  in  a  word,  have  your 
brains  about  you,  Paynter.     Good-bye."     Exit  as  before. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

UNPLEASANT  TURN  TO  AN  AGREEABLE  CONVERSE. 

There  is  no  denying  it,  I  have  led  a  life  of  far  more  than 
ordinary  happiness.  The  white  squares  in  the  checker  of 
my  existence  have  certainly  equalled  the  black  ones,  and 
it  is  not  every  man  can  say  as  much.  I  suspect  I  owe  a 
great  share  of  this  enjoyment  to  temperament,  to  a  dis- 
position not  so  much  remarkable  for  opposing  difficulties 
as  for  deriving  all  the  possible  pleasure  from  any  fortunate 
conjuncture.  This  gift  I  know  I  possess.  I  am  not  one 
of  those  strong  natures  which,  by  their  intrinsic  force,  are 
ever  impressing  their  own  image  on  the  society  they  live 
in.  I  am  a  weak,  frail,  yielding  creature,  but  my  very 
pliancy  has  given  me  many  a  partnership  in  emotions 
which,  with  a  more  rugged  temperament,  I  had  not  par- 
taken of.  When  one  has  wept  over  a  friend's  misfortunes 
and  awakes  to  the  consciousness  that  no  ill  has  befallen 
himself,  he  feels  as  some  great  millionnaire  might  feel  who 
has  bestowed  a  thousand  pounds  in  charity  and  yet  knows 
he  is  never  the  poorer.  With  the  proud  consciousness  of 
this  fresh  title  to  men's  admiration,  he  has  the  secret 
satisfaction  of  knowing  that  he  will  go  clothed  in  purple 
as  before,  and  fare  to-day  as  sumptuously  as  yesterday. 
Do  you,  most  generous  of  readers,  call  this  selfishness? 
It  is  the  very  reverse.  It  is  the  grand  culminating  point 
of  human  sympathy. 

I  have  a  great  deal  more  to  say  about  myself.  It  is  a 
theme  I  am  really  fond  of,  but  I  am  not  exactly  sure  that 
you  are  like-minded,  or  that  this  is  the  fittest  place  for  it. 
I  return  to  events. 

It  was  on  a  bright,  breezy  morning  of  the  early  autumn 
that  a  heavy  old  German  travelling-carriasje,  —  a  wagon ! 
—  rattled  over  the  uneven   pavement  of  Kalbbratonstadt, 


UNPLEASANT  TURN  TO  AN  AGREEABLE  CONVERSE.   155 

and  soon  gaining  one  of  the  long  forest  alleys,  rolled 
noiselessly  over  the  smooth  sward.  Within  sat  an  elderly 
lady  with  a  due  allowance  of  air-cushions,  toy- terriers,  and 
guide-books ;  in  the  rumble  were  a  man  and  a  maid ;  and 
in  the  cabriolet  in  front  were  a  pale  but  placid  girl,  with 
large  gray  eyes  and  long  lashes,  and  he  who  now  writes 
these  lines  beside  her.  They  who  had  only  known  me  a 
few  months  back  as  a  freshman  of  Trinity  would  not  have 
recognized  me  now,  as  I  sat  with  a  long-peaked  travelling- 
cap,  a  courier's  belt  and  bag  at  my  side,  and  the  opening 
promise  of  a  small  furry  moustache  on  my  upper  lip ;  not 
to  say  that  I  had  got  up  a  sort  of  supercilious  air  of  con- 
temptuous pity  for  the  foreigner,  which  I  had  observed  to 
be  much  in  favor  with  the  English  abroad.  It  cost  me 
dear  to  do  this,  and  nothing  but  the  consciousness  that 
it  was  one  of  the  requirements  of  my  station  could  have 
made  me  assume  it,  for  in  my  heart  of  hearts,  I  revelled 
in  enjoyment  of  all  around  me.  I  liked  the  soft  breezy 
balmy  air,  the  mellow  beech  wood,  the  grassy  turf  over- 
grown with  violets,  the  wild  notes  of  the  frightened  wood- 
pigeon,  the  very  tramp-tramp  of  the  massive  horses,  with 
their  scarlet  tassels  and  their  jingling  bells ;  all  pleased  and 
interested  me.  Not  to  speak  of  her,  who,  at  my  side, 
felt  a  very  child's  delight  at  every  novelty  of  the  way. 

'*  What  would  I  have  said  to  any  one  who,  only  a  fort- 
night ago,  had  promised  me  such  happiness  as  this  ? "  said 
I  to  my  companion,  as  we  drove  along,  while  the  light 
branches  rustled  pleasantly  over  the  roof  of  the  carriage, 
darkening  the  shade  around  us,  or  occasionally  deluging  us 
with  the  leaves  as  we  passed. 

"And  are  you  then  so  very  happy?"  asked  she,  with  a 
pleasant  smile. 

"  Can  you  doubt  it?  or  rather  is  it  that,  as  the  emotion 
does  not  extend  to  yourself,  you  do  doubt  it  ?  " 

"  Oh,  as  for  me,"  cried  she,  joyfully,  "  it  is  very  different. 
I  have  never  travelled  till  now  —  seen  nothing,  actually 
nothing.  The  veriest  commonplaces  of  the  road,  the  peas- 
ants' costumes,  their  wayside  cottages,  the  little  shrines  they 
kneel  at,  are  all  objects  of  picturesque  interest  to  me,  and  T 
am  ready  to  exclaim  at  each  moment,  '  Oh !  why  cannot  we 


166  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

Stop  here  ?  shall  we  ever  see  anything  so  beautiful  again  as 
this?'" 

' '  And  hearing  you  talk  thus,  you  can  ask  me  am  I  so  very 
happy  I  "  said  I,  reproachfully. 

*'  What  I  meant  was,  is  it  not  stupid  to  have  no  com- 
panion of  your  own  turn  of  mind,  none  with  whom  you 
could  talk,  without  condescending  to  a  tone  beneath  you, 
just  as  certain  stories  are  reduced  to  words  of  one  syllable 
for  little  children?" 

^'  Mademoiselle  is  given  to  sarcasm,  I  see,"  said  I,  half 
peevishly. 

"  Nothing  of  the  kind,"  said  she,  blushing  slightly.  "  It 
was  in  perfect  good  faith.  I  wished  you  a  more  suitable 
companion.  Indeed,  after  what  I  had  heard  from  his  Ex- 
cellency about  you,  I  was  terrified  at  the  thought  of  my  own 
insuflSciency." 

' '  And  pray  what  did  he  say  of  me  ?  "  asked  I,  in  a  flutter 
of  delight. 

"  Are  you  very  fond  of  flattery?  " 

*'  Immensely !  " 

"Is  it  not  possible  that  praise  of  you  could  be  so  exag- 
gerated as  to  make  you  feel  ashamed?" 

"I  should  say,  perfectly  impossible;  that  is,  to  a  mind 
regulated  as  mine,  over-elation  could  never  happen.  Tell 
me,  therefore,  what  he  said  ?  " 

"  I  can't  remember  one-half  of  it;  he  remarked  how  few 
men  in  the  career  —  I  conclude  he  meant  diplomacy  —  could 
compare  with  you ;  that  you  had  such  just  views  about  the 
state  of  Europe,  such  an  accurate  appreciation  of  public 
men.  I  can't  say  how  many  opportunities  you  must  n't 
have  had,  and  what  valuable  uses  you  have  not  put  them 
to.  In  a  word,  I  felt  that  I  was  about  to  travel  with  a  great 
statesman  and  a  consummate  man  of  the  world,  and  was 
terrified  accordingly." 

"And  now  that  the  delusion  is  dispelled,  how  do  you 
feel?" 

"But  is  it  dispelled?  Am  I  not  shocked  with  my  own 
temerity  in  daring  to  talk  thus  lightly  with  one  so  learned  ?  "^ 

"  If  so,"  said  I,  "  you  conceal  your  embarrassment 
wonderfully. " 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 

UNPLEASANT  TURN  TO  AN  AGREEABLE  CONVERSE.  157 

And  then  we  both  laughed ;  but  I  am  not  quite  sure  it  was 
at  the  same  joke. 

"Do  you  know  where  you  are  going?  "  said  I,  taking  out 
a  travelling-map  as  a  means  of  diverting  our  conversation 
into  some  higher  channel. 

"Not  in  the  least." 

"Nor  care?" 

"Nor  care." 

"Well,  I  must  say,  it  is  a  most  independent  frame  of 
mind.  Perhaps  you  could  extend  this  fine  philosophy,  and 
add,  '  Nor  with  whom ! '  " 

I  was  not  at  all  conscious  of  what  an  impertinence  I  had 
uttered  till  it  was  out;  nor,  indeed,  even  then,  till  I  re- 
marked that  her  cheek  had  become  scarlet,  and  her  eyes 
double  as  dark  as  their  wont. 

"Yes,"  said  she,  "there  is  one  condition  for  which  I 
should  certainly  stipulate,  —  not  to  travel  with  any  one  who 
could  needlessly  offend  me." 

I  could  have  cried  with  shame;  I  could  have  held  my 
hand  in  the  flame  of  a  fire  to  expiate  my  rude  speech.  And 
so  I  told  her;  while  I  assured  her  at  the  same  time,  with 
marvellous  consistency,  that  it  was  not  rude  at  all ;  that  it 
was  entirely  misconception  on  her  part;  that  nous  autres 
diplomates  —  Heaven  forgive  me  the  lying  assumption!  — 
had  a  way  of  saying  little  smartnesses  that  don't  mean 
much ;  that  we  often  made  our  coin  ring  on  the  table,  though 
it  turned  out  bad  money  when  it  came  to  be  looked  at;  that 
Talleyrand  did  it,  and  Walewsky  did  it,  and  I  did  it,  —  we 
all  did  it! 

Now,  there  was  one  most  unlucky  feature  in  all  this.  It 
was  only  a  few  minutes  before  this  passage  occurred,  that 
I  said  to  myself,  "Potts,  here  is  one  whose  frank,  fresh, 
generous  nature  claims  all  your  respect  and  devotion.  No 
nonsense  of  your  being  this,  that,  and  t'other  here.  Be 
truthful  and  be  honest ;  neither  pretend  to  be  man  of  fortune 
nor  man  of  fashion ;  own  fairly  to  her  by  what  chance  you 
adventured  upon  this  strange  life;  tell  her,  in  a  word,  you 
are  the  son  of  Potts,  —  Potts  the  'pothecary,  —  and  neither 
a  hero  nor  a  plenipotentiary  I  " 

I  have  no  doubt,  most  amiable  of  readers,  that  nothing 


158  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

can  seem  possibly  more  easy  than  to  have  done  all  this. 
You  deem  it  the  natural  and  ordinary  course;  just  as,  for 
instance,  a  merchant  in  good  credit  and  repute  would  feel 
no  repugnance  to  calling  all  his  creditors  together  to  inspect 
his  books,  and  see  that,  though  apparently  solvent,  he  was, 
in  truth,  utterly  bankrupt.  And  yet  there  is  some  difficulty 
in  doing  this.  Does  not  the  law  of  England  expressly 
declare  that  no  man  need  criminate  himself?  Who  accuses 
you,  then.  Potts?  And  then  I  bethought  me  of  the  worthy 
old  alderman,  who,  on  learning  that  '*  Robinson  Crusoe  "  was 
a  fiction,  exclaimed,  "It  may  be  so;  but  I  have  lost  the 
greatest  pleasure  of  my  life  in  hearing  it."  What  a  pro- 
found philosophy  was  there  in  that  simple  avowal !  With 
what  illusions  are  we  not  cheered  on  through  life!  how 
unreal  the  joys  that  delight  and  the  triumphs  that  elate  us; 
for  we  are  all  hypochondriacs,  and  are  as  often  cured  with 
bread  pills  as  with  bold  remedies.  "Yes,"  thought  I,  "this 
young  girl  is  happy  in  the  thought  that  her  companion  is  a 
person  of  rank,  station,  and  influence;  she  feels  a  sort  of 
self-elation  in  being  associated  with  one  endowed  with  all 
worldly  advantages.  Shall  I  rob  her  of  this  illusion  ?  Shall 
I  rudely  deprive  her  of  what  imparts  a  charm  to  her  exist- 
ence, and  gives  a  sort  of  romantic  interest  to  her  daily  life? 
Harsh  and  needless  would  be  the  cruelty!  " 

While  I  thus  argued  with  myself,  she  had  opened  her 
guide-book,  and  was  eagerly  reading  away  about  the  road 
we  were  travelling.  "We  are  to  halt  at  Bomerstein,  are 
we  not?"  asked  she. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "we  rest  there  for  the  night.  It  is  one  of 
those  little  villages  of  which  a  German  writer  has  given  us 
a  striking  picture." 

"Auerstadt,"  broke  she  in. 

"  So  you  have  read  him  ?     You  read  German  ?  " 

"Yes,  tolerably;  that  is,  well  enough  for  Schiller  and 
Uhland,  but  not  well  enough  for  Jean  Paul  and  Goethe." 

"Never  mind;  trust  me  for  a  guide;  you  shall  now  ven- 
ture upon  both." 

"But  how  will  you  be  able  to  give  up  time  valuable  as 
yours  to  such  teachings  ?  Would  it  be  fair  of  me,  besides, 
to  steal  hours  that  ought  to  be  devoted  to  your  country  ?  " 


UNPLEASANT  TURN  TO  AN  AGREEABLE  CONVERSE.   159 

Though  I  had  not  the  slightest  imaginable  ground  to  sus- 
pect any  secret  sarcasm  in  this  speech,  my  guilty  conscience 
made  me  feel  it  as  a  perfect  torture.  "She  knows  me," 
thought  I,  *'and  this  sneer  at  my  pretended  importance  is 
intended  to  overwhelm  me." 

"As  to  my  country's  claims,"  said  I,  haughtily,  "I  make 
light  of  them.  All  that  I  have  seen  of  life  only  shows  the 
shallowness  of  what  is  called  the  public  service.  I  am 
resolved  to  leave  it,  and  forever." 

'*And  for  what?" 

"A  life  of  retirement,  —  obscurity  if  you  will." 

"It  is  what  I  should  do  if  I  were  a  man." 

"Indeed!" 

"Yes.  I  have  often  reflected  over  the  delight  I  have  felt 
in  walking  through  some  man's  demesne,  revelling  in  the 
enjoyment  of  its  leafy  solitude,  its  dreary  shade,  its  sunlit 
vistas,  and  I  have  thought,  '  If  all  these  things,  not  one  of 
which  are  mine,  can  bring  such  pleasure  to  my  heart,  why 
should  I  not  adopt  the  same  philosophy  in  life,  and  be  sat- 
isfied with  enjoying  without  possessing?  A  very  humble 
lot  would  suffice  for  one,  nothing  but  great  success  could 
achieve  the  other.'  " 

"What  becomes,  then,  of  that  great  stimulus  to  good  they 
call  labor?" 

"Qh,  I  should  labor,  too.  I  'd  work  at  whatever  I  was 
equal  to.  I  'd  sew,  and  knit,  and  till  my  garden,  and  be 
as  useful  as  possible." 

"And  I  would  write,"  said  I,  enthusiastically,  as  though 
I  were  plotting  out  my  share  in  this  garden  of  Eden.  "I 
would  write  all  sorts  of  things :  reviews,  and  histories,  and 
stories,  and  short  poems,  and,  last  of  all,  the  *  Confessions 
of  Algernon  Sydney  Potts. '  " 

"Oh,  what  a  shocking  title!  How  could  such  names  have 
met  together?  That  shocking  epithet  Potts  would  vulgarize 
it  all!" 

"I  really  cannot  agree  with  you,"  said  I,  angrily. 

"Without,"  said  she,  "you  meant  it  for  a  sort  of  quiz; 
and  that  Potts  was  to  be  a  creature  of  absurdity  and  folly, 
a  pretender  and  a  snob." 

I  felt  as  if  I  was  choking  with  passion ;  but  I  tried  ta 
laugh,  and  say,  "Yes,  of  course." 


160  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"That  would  be  good  fun  enough,"  went  she  on.  *'I'd 
like,  if  I  could,  to  contribute  to  that.  You  should  invent 
the  situations,  and  leave  me  occasionally  to  supply  the  reflec- 
tive part." 

"It  would  be  charming;  quite  delightful." 

"Shall  we  do  it,  then?  Let  us  try  it,  by  all  means.  We 
might  begin  by  imagining  Potts  in  search  of  this,  that,  or 
t'other, — love,  happiness,  solitude,  climate,  scenery,  any- 
thing, in  short.  Let  us  fancy  him  on  a  journey,  try  and 
personate  him;  that  would  be  the  real  way.  Do  you,  for 
instance,  be  Potts,  and  I  '11  be  his  sister  Susan.  It  will  be 
the  best  fun  in  the  world,  as  we  go  along,  to  see  everything, 
note  everything,  and  discuss  everything  Potts-wise." 

"It  would  be  too  ridiculous,  too  absurd,"  said  I,  sick 
with  anger. 

"Not  a  bit;  we  are  travelling  with  our  old  grandmother, 
we  are  making  the  tour  of  Europe,  and  keeping  our  journal. 
Every  evening  we  compare  notes  of  what  we  have  seen. 
Pray  do  so;  I  'm  quite  wild  to  try  it." 

"Really,"  said  I,  gravely,  "it  is  a  sort  of  trifling  I  should 
find  it  very  difficult  to  descend  to.  I  see  no  reason,  be- 
sides, to  associate  the  name  of  Potts  with  what  you  are 
pleased  to  call  snobbery !  " 

"Could  you  help  it?  Could  you,  with  all  the  best  will 
in  the  world,  make  Potts  a  man  of  distinction?  Would  n't 
he,  in  spite  of  you,  be  low,  vulgar,  inquisitive,  and  obtru- 
sive? Wouldn't  you  find  him  thrusting  himself  forward, 
twenty  times  a  day,  into  positions  he  had  no  right  to? 
Would  n't  the  creature  be  a  butt  and  a  dupe  —  " 

"Shall  I  own,"  burst  I  in,  "that  it  gives  me  no  exalted 
idea  of  your  taste,  if  I  find  that  you  select  for  ridicule  a 
person  on  the  mere  showing  that  his  name  is  a  mono- 
syllable? And,  once  for  all,  I  repudiate  all  share  in  the 
scheme,  and  beg  that  I  may  not  hear  more  of  it." 

I  turned  away  as  I  said  this.  She  resumed  her  book,  and 
we  spoke  no  more  to  each  other  till  we  reached  our  halting- 
place  for  the  night. 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

MKS.    KEATS   MOVES    MY   INDIGNATION. 

I  AM  forced  to  the  confession,  Mrs.  Keats  was  not  what  is 
popularly  called  an  agreeable  old  lady.  She  spoke  seldom, 
she  smiled  never,  and  she  had  a  way  of  looking  at  you,  a 
sort  of  cold  astonishment,  seeming  to  say,  '^How  is  this? 
explain  yourself,"  that  kept  me  in  a  perpetual  terror. 

My  morning's  tiff  with  Miss  Herbert  had  neither  been 
•condoned  nor  expiated  when  we  sat  down  to  dinner,  as  stiff 
a  party  of  three  as  can  well  be  imagined ;  scarcely  a  word 
was  interchanged  as  we  ate. 

"If  you  drink  wine,  sir,  pray  order  it,"  said  Mrs.  Keats 
to  me,  in  a  voice  that  might  have  suited  an  invitation  to 
prussic  acid. 

"This  little  wine  of  the  counti-y  is  very  pleasant,  madam," 
said  I,  courteously,  "and  I  can  even  venture  to  recom- 
mend it." 

"Not  to  me,  sii.     I  drink  water." 

"Perhaps  Miss  Herbert  will  allow  me?" 

"Excuse  me;  I  also  drink  water." 

After  a  very  dreary  and  painful  pause,  I  dared  to  express 
a  faint  hope  that  Mrs.  Keats  had  not  been  fatigued  by  the 
day's  journey. 

She  looked  at  me  for  a  second  or  two  before  replying,  and 
then  said:  "I  am  really  not  aware,  sir,  that  I  have  mani- 
fested any  such  signs  of  weariness  as  would  warrant  your 
inquiry.     If  I  should  have,  however  —  " 

"Oh,  I  beg  you  will  pardon  me,  madam,"  broke  I  in, 
apologetically ;  "  my  question  was  not  meant  for  more  than 
a.  mere  ordinary  politeness,  a  matter-of-course  expression 
of  my  solicitude." 

11 


162  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"It  will  save  us  both  some  trouble  in  future,  sir,  if  I  re- 
mark that  I  am  no  friend  to  matter-of-course  civilities,  and 
never  reply  to  them." 

I  felt  as  though  my  head  and  face  had  been  passed  across 
the  open  door  of  a  blast  furnace.  I  was  in  a  perfect  flame, 
and  dared  not  raise  my  eye  from  my  plate. 

"The  waiter  is  asking  if  you  will  take  coffee,  sir,"  said 
the  inexorable  old  lady  to  me,  as  I  sat  almost  stunned  and 
stupid. 

"Yes  —  with  brandy  —  a  full  glass  of  brandy  in  it,"  cried 
I,  in  the  half -despair  of  one  who  knew  not  how  to  rally 
himself. 

"I  think  we  may  retire,  Miss  H.,"  said  Mrs.  Keats,  ris- 
ing with  a  severe  dignity  that  seemed  to  say,  "We  are  not 
bound  to  assist  at  an  orgy."  And  with  a  stern  stare  and  a 
defiant  little  bow  she  moved  towards  the  door.  I  was  so 
awestruck  that  I  never  moved  from  my  place,  but  stood 
resting  my  hand  on  my  chair,  till  she  said,  "Do  you  mean 
to  open  the  door,  sir,  or  am  I  to  do  it  for  myself  ?  " 

I  sprang  forward  at  once,  and  flung  it  wide,  my  face  all 
scarlet  with  shame. 

She  passed  out,  and  Miss  Herbert  followed  her.  Her 
dress,  however,  catching  in  the  doorway,  she  turned  back  to 
extricate  it;  I  seized  the  moment  to  stoop  down  and  say, 
"Do  let  me  see  you  for  one  moment  this  evening,  — only 
one  moment." 

She  shook  her  head  in  silent  negative,  and  went  away. 

I  sat  down  at  the  table,  and  filled  myself  a  large  goblet  of 
wine ;  I  drank  it  off,  and  replenished  it.  It  was  only  this 
morning,  a  few  brief  hours  ago,  and  I  would  not  have 
changed  fortunes  with  the  Emperor  of  France.  Life 
seemed  to  open  before  me  like  some  beautiful  alley  in  a 
garden,  with  a  glorious  vista  in  the  distance.  I  would  not 
have  bartered  the  place  in  that  cabriolet  for  the  proudest 
throne  in  Europe.  She  was  there  beside  me,  listening  in 
rapt  attention,  as  I  discoursed  voyages,  travels,  memoirs, 
poetry,  and  personal  adventures.  With  every  changeful 
expression  of  lovely  sympathy  did  she  follow  me  through 
all.  I  was  a  hero  to  us  both,  myself  as  much  captivated 
as  she  was;  and  now  the  brief  drama  was  over,  the  lights 


MRS.  KEATS  MOVES  MY  INDIGNATION.  163 

were  put  out,  and  the  theatre  closed !  How  had  I  destroyed 
this  golden  delusion,  —  why  had  I  quarrelled  with  her,  and 
for  what?  For  a  certain  Potts,  a  creature  who,  in  reality, 
had  no  existence;  "For  who  is  Potts?"  said  I.  "Potts  is 
no  more  a  substance  than  Caleb  Williams  or  Peregrine 
Pickle ;  Potts  is  the  lay  figure  that  the  artist  dresses  in  any 
costume  he  requires  —  a  Kachero  to-day,  a  Railway  Director 
to-morrow.  What  an  absurdity  in  the  importance  we  lend 
to  mere  names !  Here,  for  instance,  I  take  the  label  off  the 
port,  and  I  hang  it  round  the  neck  of  the  claret  decanter: 
have  I  changed  the  quality  of  the  vintage  ?  have  I  brought 
Bordeaux  to  the  meridian  of  Oporto?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  And 
yet  a  man  is  to  be  more  the  victim  of  an  accident  than  a 
bottle  of  wine,  and  his  intrinsic  qualities  —  strength, 
flavor,  and  richness  —  are  not  to  be  tested,  but  simply  im- 
plied from  the  label  round  his  neck !  How  narrow-minded, 
after  all,  of  her,  who  ought  to  have  known  better!  It  is 
thus,  however,  we  educate  our  women;  this  is  part  and 
parcel  of  the  false  system  by  which  we  fancy  we  make  them 
companionable.  The  North  American  Indians  are  far  in 
advance  of  us  in  all  this:  they  assign  them  their  proper 
places  and  fitting  duties;  they  feel  that,  in  this  life  of  ours, 
order  and  happiness  depend  on  the  due  distribution  of  bur- 
dens, and  the  Snapping  Alligator  never  feels  his  squaw 
more  truly  his  helpmate  than  when  she  is  skinning  eels  for 
his  dinner." 

How  I  hated  that  old  woman ;  I  don't  think  I  ever  detested 
a  human  creature  so  much  as  that.  I  have  often  speculated 
as  to  whether  venomous  reptiles  have  any  gratification  im- 
parted to  them  when  they  inflict  a  poisonous  wound.  Is  the 
mosquito  the  happier  for  having  stung  one's  nose?  And,  in 
the  same  spirit,  I  should  like  to  know,  do  the  disagreeable 
people  of  this  world  sleep  the  better  from  the  consciousness 
of  having  offended  us  ?  Is  there  that  great  ennobling  sense 
of  a  mission  fulfilled  for  every  cheek  they  set  on  fire  and 
every  heart  they  depress?  and  do  they  quench  hope  and 
extinguish  ambition  with  the  same  zeal  that  the  Sun  or  the 
Phoenix  put  out  a  fire? 

"  *  If  you  drink  wine,  sir,  pray  order  it, '  "  said  I,  mimick- 
ing her  imperious  tone.     "Yes,  madam,  I  do  drink  wine, 


164  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

and  I  mean  to  order  it,  and  liberally.  I  travel  at  the  expense 
of  that  noble  old  paymaster  who  only  wags  his  tail  the  more, 
the  more  he  has  to  pay  —  the  British  Lion.  I  go  down  in  the 
extraordinaries.  I  'm  on  what  is  called  a  special  service. 
'  Keep  an  account  of  your  expenses,  Paynter !  *  Confound 
his  insolence,  he  would  say  '  Paynter.'  By  the  way,  I  have 
never  looked  how  he  calls  me  in  my  passport.  I  'm  curious 
to  see  if  I  be  Paynter  there."  I  had  left  the  bag  containing 
this  and  my  money  in  my  room,  and  I  rang  the  bell,  and 
told  the  waiter  to  fetch  it. 

The  passport  set  forth  in  due  terms  all  the  dignities, 
honors,  and  decorations  of  the  great  man  who  granted  it, 
and  who  bespoke  for  the  little  man  who  travelled  by  it  all 
aid  and  assistance  possible,  and  to  let  him  pass  freely,  &c. 
"Mr.  Ponto,  —  British  subject."  "  '  Ponto!  '  "  What  an 
outrage !  This  comes  of  a  man  making  his  maitre  d' hotel 
his  secretary.  That  stupid  French  flunkey  has  converted 
me  into  a  water-dog.  This  may  explain  a  good  deal  of  the 
old  lady's  rudeness;  how  could  she  be  expected  to  be  even 
ordinarily  civil  to  a  man  called  Ponto?  She  *d  say  at  once, 
'  His  father  was  an  Italian,  and,  of  course,  a  courier,  or  a 
valet;  or  he  was  a  foundling,  and  called  after  a  favorite 
spaniel.*  1*11  rectify  this  without  loss  of  time.  If  she  has 
not  the  tact  to  discover  the  man  of  education  and  breeding 
by  the  qualities  he  displays  in  intercourse,  she  shall  be 
brought  to  admit  them  by  the  demands  of  his  self-respect." 

I  opened  my  writing-desk  and  wrote  just  two  lines,  —  a 
polite  request  for  a  few  moments  of  interview,  signed  "A. 
S.  Pottinger."  I  wrote  the  name  in  a  fine  text  hand,  as 
though  to  say,  ''No  more  blunders,  madam,  this  is  large  as 
print." 

"Take  this  to  your  mistress,  Francois,"  said  I  to  the 
courier. 

"Gone  to  bed,  sir." 

"Gone  to  bed!  why,  it's  only  eight  o'clock.** 

A  shrug  and  a  smile  were  all  he  replied. 

"And  Miss  Herbert,  — can  I  speak  to  her?** 

"Fear  not,  sir;  she  went  to  her  room,  and  told  Clemen- 
tina not  to  disturb  her." 

"It  is  of  consequence,  however,  that  I  should  see  her.     I 


MRS.  KEATS  MOVES  MY  INDIGNATION.  165 

want  to  make  arrangements  for  to-morrow,  —  the  hour  we 
are  to  start  —  " 

"  Oh !  but  we  are  to  stop  here  over  to-morrow ;  I  thought 
monsieur  knew  that,"  said  the  fellow,  with  the  insolent  grin 
of  a  menial  at  knowing  more  than  his  betters. 

''Oh,  to  be  sure  we  are,"  said  I,  laughingly,  and  affecting 
to  have  suddenly  remembered  it.  "I  forgot  all  about  it, 
Francois;  you  are  quite  right.  Take  a  glass  of  wine,  Fran- 
cois, —  or  take  the  bottle  with  you,  that 's  better."  And  I 
handed  him  a  flask  of  Hocheimer  of  eight  florins,  right  glad 
to  get  rid  of  his  presence  and  escape  further  scrutiny  from 
his  prying  glances. 

How  relieved  I  felt  when  the  fellow  closed  the  door  after 
him  and  left  me  to  "blow  off  the  steam  "  of  my  indignation 
all  alone!  And  was  I  not  indignant?  Only  to  fancy  this 
insolent  old  woman  giving  her  orders  without  so  much  as 
condescending  to  communicate  with  me !  I  am  left  to  learn 
her  whim  by  a  mere  accident,  or  not  learn  it  at  all,  and 
exhibit  myself  ready  to  depart  at  the  inn  door,  and  then 
hear,  for  the  first  time,  that  I  may  unpack  again. 

This  was  unquestionably  a  studied  rudeness,  and  de- 
manded an  equally  studied  reprisal.  She  means  to  discredit 
my  station,  and  disparage  my  influence;  how  shall  I  reply 
to  her?  A  vast  variety  of  expedients  offered  themselves  to 
my  mind :  I  could  go  off,  leaving  a  fearful  letter  behind  me, 
—  a  document  that  would  cut  her  to  the  verj^  soul  with  the 
sarcastic  bitterness  of  its  tone;  but  could  I  leave  without  a 
reconciliation  with  Miss  Herbert,  —  without  the  fond  hope 
of  our  meeting  as  friends.  I  meant  a  great  deal  more, 
though  I  would  n't  trust  myself  to  say  so.  Besides,  were  I 
to  go  away,  there  were  financial  considerations  to  be  enter- 
tained. I  could  not,  of  course,  carry  off  that  crimson  bag 
with  its  gold  and  silver  contents,  and  yet  it  was  very  hard 
to  tear  myself  from  such  a  treasure. 

I  say  it  under  correction,  for  I  have  never  been  rich,  and, 
consequently,  never  in  the  position  to  assert  it  positively; 
but  I  declare  my  firm  conviction  to  be  that  no  man  has  ever 
tasted  the  unbounded  pleasures  of  a  careless  liberality  on  a 
journey,  who  has  not  travelled  at  some  other  person's  ex- 
pense.    Be  as  wealthy  as  you  like,  let  your  portmanteau  be 


166  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

stuffed  full  of  circular  notes,  and  there  will  be  present  at  mo- 
ments of  payment  the  thought,  *'If  I  do  not  allow  myself  to 
be  cheated  here,  I  shall  have  all  the  more  to  squander  there." 
But,  drawing  from  the  bag  of  another,  no  such  mean  reflec- 
tion obtrudes.  You  might  as  well  defraud  your  lungs  of  a 
long  inspiration  out  of  the  fear  of  taking  more  than  your 
share  of  the  atmosphere.  There  is  enough,  and  will  be 
enough  there  when  you  are  dust  and  ashes. 

In  fact,  if  I  had  on  one  side  the  "three  courses  "  of  the 
great  statesman,  I  had  on  the  other  full  thirty  reasons  against 
each,  and,  therefore,  I  resolved  to  suspend  action  and  do 
nothing.  And  let  me  here  passingly  remark  that,  much  as 
we  hear  every  day  about  the  merits  of  promptitude  and 
quick-wittedness,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  in  life,  I  *d  rather 
*'give  the  move  than  take  it."  The  waiting  policy  is  a  rare 
one ;  it  is  the  secret  of  success  in  love,  and  of  victory  in  an 
equity  court.  And  so  I  determined  I  'd  wait  and  see  what 
should  come  of  it.  I  appealed  to  myself  thus:  "Potts,  you 
are  eminently  a  man  of  the  world,  one  who  accepts  life  as 
it  is,  with  all  its  crosses  and  untoward  incidents;  who 
knows  well  that  he  must  play  bad  cards  even  oftener  than 
good  ones.  No  impatience,  therefore,  no  rashness;  give  at 
least  twenty-four  hours*  thought  to  any  important  decision, 
and  let  a  night's  sleep  intervene  between  your  first  concep- 
tion of  a  plan  and  its  adoption."  Oh,  if  the  people  who  are 
fretting  themselves  about  what  is  to  happen  this  day  ten 
years,  would  only  remember  what  a  long  time  it  is,  —  that 
is,  counting  by  the  number  of  events  that  will  occur  between 
this  and  to-morrow,  —  not  to  say  what  incidents  are  hap- 
pening at  the  antipodes  that  will  yet  bring  joy  or  sorrow  to 
their  hearts,  —  they  would  keep  more  of  their  sympathies  for 
present  use,  and  perhaps  be  the  happier  for  doing  so. 


CHAPTER  XVm. 

AN   IMPATIENT   SUMMONS. 

I  AM  about  to  make  a  very  original  observation.  I  hope  its 
truth  may  equal  its  originality.  It  is,  that  the  man  who  has 
never  had  a  sister  is,  at  his  first  entrance  into  life,  far  more 
the  slave  of  feminine  captivations  than  he  who  has  been 
brought  up  in  a  ''house  full  of  girls."  "Oh,  for  shame, 
Mr.  Potts  !  Is  this  the  gallantry  we  have  heard  so  much  of? 
Is  this  the  spirit  of  that  chivalrous  devotion  you  have  been 
incessantly  impressing  upon  us  ? "  Wait  a  moment,  fair 
creature ;  give  me  one  half -minute  for  an  explanation.  He 
who  has  not  had  sisters  has  had  no  experiences  of  the 
behind-scene  life  of  the  female  world ;  he  has  never  heard 
one  syllable  about  the  plans  and  schemes  and  devices  by 
which  hearts  are  snared.  He  fancies  Mary  stuck  that  moss- 
rose  in  her  hair  in  a  moment  of  childish  caprice ;  that  Kate 
ran  after  her  little  sister  and  showed  the  prettiest  of  ankles 
in  doing  it,  out  of  the  irrepressible  gayety  of  her  buoyant 
spirits.  In  a  word,  he  is  one  who  only  sees  the  play  when 
the  house  is  fully  lighted,  and  all  the  actors  in  their  grand 
costume ;  he  has  never  witnessed  a  rehearsal,  and  has  not 
the  very  vaguest  suspicion  of  a  prompter. 

To  him,  therefore,  who  has  only  experienced  the  rough 
companionsliip  of  brothers  —  or  worse  still,  has  lived  en- 
tirely alone  —  the  first  acquaintanceship  with  the  young-lady 
world  is  such  a  fascination  as  no  words  can  describe.  The 
gentle  look,  the  graceful  gestures,  the  silvery  voices,  all  the 
play  and  action  of  natures  so  infinitely  more  refined  than 
any  he  has  ever  witnessed,  are  inexpressibly  captivating.  It 
is  not  alone  the  occupations  of  their  hours,  light,  graceful, 
and  picturesque  as  they  are,  but  all  their  topics,  their 
thoughts,  seem  to  soar  out  of  the  commonplace  world  he  has 


168  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

lived  in,  and  rise  to  ideal  realms  of  poetry  and  beauty.  I 
say  it  advisedly :  I  do  not  know  of  anything  so  truly  Elysian 
in  life  as  our  first  —  our  very  first  —  experiences  of  this 
kind. 

Werther's  passion  for  Charlotte  received  a  powerful  im- 
pulse from  watching  her  as  she  cut  bread-and-butter  for  the 
children.  There  are  vulgar  natures  who  will  smile  at  this ; 
who  cannot  enter  into  the  intense  far-sightedness  of  that 
poetic  conception;  that  could  in  one  trait  of  simplicity 
embody  a  whole  lifetime  with  its  ennobling  duties,  its  cheer- 
ful sacrifices,  its  gracefully  borne  cares.  Let  him,  therefore, 
who  could  sneer  at  Werther,  scofif  at  Potts,  as  he  owns  that 
he  never  felt  his  heart  so  powerfully  drawn  to  Kate  Herbert 
as  when  he  watched  her  making  tea  for  breakfast.  Dressed 
in  a  muslin  that  represented  mourning,  her  rich  hair  plainly 
enclosed  in  a  net,  with  a  noiseless  motion,  she  glided  about, 
an  ideal  of  gentle  sadness,  more  fascinating  than  I  can  tell. 
If  she  bore  any  unpleasant  memory  of  our  little  difference, 
she  did  not  show  it ;  her  manner  was  calm  and  even  kind. 
She  felt,  perhaps,  that  some  compensation  was  due  to  me  for 
the  rudeness  of  that  old  woman,  and  was  not  unwilling 
to  make  it. 

'*  You  know  we  are  to  rest  here  to-day?  "  said  she,  as  she 
busied  herself  at  the  table. 

''  I  heard  it  by  a  mere  chance,  and  from  the  courier,"  said 
I,  peevishly.  "  I  am  not  quite  certain  in  what  capacity 
Mrs.  Keats  condescends  to  regard  me,  that  I  am  treated 
with  such  scant  courtesy.  Probably  you  would  be  kind 
enough  to  ascertain  this  point  for  me?" 

"  I  shall  assuredly  not  ask,"  said  she,  with  a  smile. 

''I  certainly  promised  her  brother  —  I  could  not  do  less 
for  a  colleague,  not  to  say  something  more  —  that  I  'd  see 
this  old  lady  safe  over  the  Alps.  They  are  looking  out  for 
me  anxiously  enough  at  Constantinople  all  this  while;  in 
fact,  I  suspect  there  will  be  a  nice  confusion  there  through 
my  delay,  and  I  'd  not  be  a  bit  surprised  if  they  begin  to 
believe  that  stupid  story  in  the  '  Nord.*  I  suppose  you 
saw  it?" 

''No.     What  is  it  about?" 

**  It  is   about  your   humble   servant.  Miss  Herbert,  and 


AN  IMPATIENT  SUMMONS.  16^ 

hints  that  he  has  received  one  hundred  purses  from  the 
sheiks  of  the  Lebanon  not  to  reach  the  Golden  Horn  before 
they  have  made  their  peace  with  the  Grand  Vizier." 

''  And  is  of  course  untrue?  " 

*' Of  course,  every  word  of  it  is  a  falsehood;  but  there 
are  gobemouches  will  believe  anything.  Mark  my  words, 
and  see  if  this  allegation  be  not  heard  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  some  Tower  Hamlets  member  start  up  to  ask  if 
the  Foreign  Secretary  will  lay  on  the  table  copies  of  the 
instructions  given  to  a  certain  person,  and  supposed  to  be 
credentials  of  a  nature  to  supersede  the  functions  of  our 
ambassador  at  the  Porte.  In  confidence,  between  ourselves, 
Miss  Herbert,  so  they  are !  I  am  intrusted  with  full  powers 
about  the  Hatti  Homayoun,  as  the  world  shall  see  in  good 
time." 

''Do  you  take  your  tea  strong ?"  asked  she;  and  there 
was  something  so  odd  and  so  inopportune  in  the  question, 
that  I  felt  it  as  a  sort  of  covert  sneer ;  but  when  I  looked 
up  and  beheld  that  pale  and  gentle  face  turned  towards  me, 
I  banished  the  base  suspicion,  and  forgetting  all  my  en- 
thusiasm, said,  — 

''  Yes,  dearest;  strong  as  brandy!  " 

She  tried  to  look  grave,  perhaps  angry ;  but  in  spite  of 
herself,  she  burst  out  a-laughing. 

"I  perceive,  sir,"  said  she,  '^that  Mrs.  Keats  was  quite 
correct  when  she  said  that  you  appear  to  have  moments  in 
which  you  are  unaware  of  what  you  say." 

Before  I  could  rally  to  reply,  she  had  poured  out  a  cup 
of  tea  for  Mrs.  Keats,  and  left  the  room  to  carry  it  to 
her. 

"  'Moments  in  which  I  am  unaware  of  what  I  say,'  — 
'  incoherent  intervals '  Forbes  Winslow  would  call  them : 
in  plain  English,  I  am  mad.  Old  woman,  have  you  dared 
to  cast  such  an  aspersion  on  me,  and  to  disparage  me, 
too,  in  the  quarter  where  I  am  striving  to  achieve  success? 
For  her  opinion  of  me  I  am  less  than  indifferent ;  for  her 
judgment  of  my  capacity,  my  morals,  my  manners,  I  am 
as  careless  as  I  well  can  be  of  anything ;  but  these  become 
serious  disparagements  when  they  reach  the  ears  of  one 
whose  heart  I  would  make  my  own.     I  will  insist  on  an 


170  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

explanation  —  no,  but  an  apology  —  for  this.  She  shall 
declare  that  she  used  these  words  in  some  non-natura] 
sense,  —  that  I  am  the  sanest  of  mortals :  she  shall  give  it 
under  her  hand  and  seal :  '  I,  the  undersigned,  having  in 
a  moment  of  rash  and  impatient  judgment  imputed  to  the 
bearer  of  this  document,  Algernon  Sydney  Potts,'  —  no, 
Pottinger  —  ha,  there  is  a  difficulty !  If  I  be  Pottinger,  I 
can  never  re-become  Potts  ;  if  Potts,  I  am  lost,  —  or  rather. 
Miss  Herbert  is  lost  to  me  forever.  What  a  dire  em- 
barrassment! Not  to  mention  that  in  the  passport  I  was 
Ponto !  " 

''Mrs.  Keats  desired  me  to  beg  you  will  step  up  to  her 
room  after  breakfast,  and  bring  your  account- books  with 
you."  This  was  said  by  Miss  Herbert  as  she  entered  and 
took  her  place  at  the  table. 

''What  has  the  old  woman  got  in  her  head?"  said  I, 
angrily.  "I  have  no  account-books,  —  I  never  had  such 
in  my  life.  When  I  travel  alone,  I  say  to  my  courier, 
'  Diomede  *  —  he  is  a  Greek  —  '  Diomede,  pay ;  '  and  he 
pays.  When  Diomede  is  not  with  me,  I  ask,  '  How  much  ?  * 
and  I  give  it." 

"  It  certainly  simplifies  travel,"  said  she,  gravely. 

"It  does  more.  Miss  Herbert:  it  accomplishes  the  end 
of  travel.  Your  doctor  says,  '  Go  abroad,  —  take  a  holiday 
—  turn  your  back  on  Downing  Street,  and  bid  farewell  to 
cabinet  councils.'  Where  is  the  benefit  of  such  a  course, 
I  ask,  if  you  are  to  pass  the  vacation  cursing  custom- 
house officers,  bullying  landlords,  and  browbeating  waiters? 
I  say  always,  '  Give  me  a  bad  dinner  if  you  must,  but  do 
not  derange  my  digestion ;  rather  a  damp  bed  than  thorns 
in  the  pillow.' " 

"  I  am  to  say  that  you  will  see  her,  however,"  said  she, 
with  that  matter-of-fact  adhesiveness  to  the  question  that 
never  would  permit  her  to  join  in  my  digressions. 

"Then  I  go  under  protest.  Miss  Herbert, — under  pro- 
test, and,  as  the  lawyers  say,  without  prejudice,  —  that  is, 
I  go  as  a  private  gentleman,  irresponsible  and  independent. 
Tell  her  this,  and  say,  I  know  nothing  of  figures :  arith- 
metic may  suit  the  Board  of  Trade ;  in  the  Foreign  Depart- 
ment we  ignore  it.     You  may  add,  too,   if  you  like,   that 


AN  IMPATIENT  SUMMONS.  171 

from  what  you  have  seen  of  me,  I  am  of  a  haughty  dis- 
position, easily  offended,  and  very  vindictive,  —  very  !  " 

"  But  I  really  don't  think  this,"  said  she,  with  a  bewitch- 
ing smile. 

''Not  to  you^  de — "  I  was  nearly  in  it  again:  ''not  to 
you"  said  I,  stammering  and  blushing  till  I  felt  on  fire. 
I  suspect  that  she  saw  all  the  peril  of  the  moment,  for  she 
left  the  room  hurriedly,  on  the  pretext  of  asking  Mrs.  Keats 
to  take  more  tea. 

"  She  is  sensible  of  your  devotion.  Potts ;  but  is  she 
touched  by  it  ?  Has  she  said  to  herself,  '  That  man  is  my 
fate,  my  destiny,  —  it  is  no  use  resisting  him ;  dark  and 
mysterious  as  he  is,  I  am  drawn  towards  him  by  an  inscru- 
table sympathy '  —  or  is  she  still  struggling  in  the  toils, 
muttering  to  her  heart  to  be  still,  and  to  wait?  Flutter 
away,  gentle  creature,"  said  I,  compassionately,  "  but 
ruffle  not  your  lovely  plumage  too  roughly ;  the  bars  of  your 
cage  are  not  the  less  impassable  that  they  are  invisible. 
You  shall  love  me,  and  you  shall  be  mine !  " 

To  these  rapturous  fancies  there  now  succeeded  the  far 
less  captivating  thought  of  Mrs.  Keats,  and  an  approach- 
ing interview.  Can  any  reader  explain  why  it  is,  that  one 
sits  in  quiet  admiration  of  some  old  woman  by  Teniers  or 
Holbein,  and  never  experiences  any  chagrin  or  impatience 
at  trials  which,  if  only  represented  in  life,  would  be  posi- 
tively odious?  Why  is  it  that  art  transcends  nature,  and 
that  ugliness  in  canvas  is  more  endurable  than  ugliness  in 
the  flesh?  Now,  for  my  own  part,  I'd  rather  have  faced 
a  whole  gallery  of  the  Dutch  school,  from  Van  Eyck  to 
Verhagen,  than  have  confronted  that  one  old  lady  who  sat 
awaiting  me  in  No.  12. 

Twice  as  I  sat  at  my  breakfast  did  Francois  put  in  his 
head,  look  at  me,  and  retire  without  a  word.  "  What  is 
the  matter?  What  do  you  mean?"  cried  I,  impatiently,  at 
the  third  intrusion. 

"  It  is  madam  that  wishes  to  know  when  monsieur  will  be 
at  leisure  to  go  upstairs  to  her." 

I  almost  bounded  on  my  chair  with  passion.  How  was 
I,  I  would  ask,  to  maintain  any  portion  of  that  dignity 
with  which  I  ought  to  surround  myself  if  exposed  to  such 


172  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

demands  as  this?  This  absurd  old  woman  would  tear  off 
every  illusion  in  which  I  draped  myself.  What  availed 
all  the  romance  a  rich  fancy  could  conjure  up,  when  that 
wicked  old  enchantress  called  me  to  her  presence,  and  in 
a  voice  of  thunder  said,  "  Strip  off  these  masqueradings, 
Potts,  I  know  the  whole  story."  "  Ay,  but,"  thought  I, 
''  she  cannot  do  so;  of  me  and  my  antecedents  she  knows 
positively  nothing."  "  Halt  there  !  "  interposes  Conscience  ; 
''it  is  quite  enough  to  pronounce  the  coin  base,  without 
being  able  to  say  at  what  mint  it  was  fabricated.  She  knows 
you.  Potts,  she  knows  you." 

There  is  one  great  evil  in  castle-building,  and  I  have 
thought  very  long  and  anxiously,  and  I  must  own  fruit- 
lessly, over  how  to  meet  it :  it  is  that  one  never  can  get  a 
lease  of  the  ground  to  build  on.  One  is  always  like  an 
Irish  cottier,  a  tenant  at  will,  likely  to  be  turned  out  at 
a  moment's  notice,  and  dispossessed  without  pity  or  com- 
passion. The  same  language  applies  to  each :  ''You  know 
well,  my  good  fellow,  you  had  no  right  to  be  there ;  pack  up 
and  be  off !  "  It 's  no  use  saying  that  it  was  a  bit  of  waste 
land  unfenced  and  untilled ;  that,  until  you  took  it  in  hand, 
it  was  overgrown  with  nettles  and  duckweed ;  that  you  dis- 
possessed no  one,  and  such  like.  The  answer  is  still  the 
same,  "Where's  your  title?     Where's  your  lease?" 

Now,  I  am  curious  to  hear  what  injury  I  was  inflicting 
on  that  old  woman  at  No.  12  by  any  self-deceptions  of 
mine?  Could  the  most  exaggerated  estimate  I  might  form 
of  myself,  my  present,  or  my  future,  in  any  degree  affect 
her  ?  Who  constituted  her  a  sort  of  ambulatory  conscience, 
to  call  people's  hearts  to  account  at  a  moment's  notice? 
It  may  be  seen  by  the  tone  of  these  reflections,  that  I  was 
fully  impressed  with  the  belief  through  some  channel,  or  by 
some  clew,  Mrs.  Keats  knew  all  my  history,  and  intended  to 
use  her  knowledge  tyrannically  over  me. 

Oh  that  I  could  only  retaliate!  Oh  that  I  had  only 
the  veriest  fragment  of  her  past  life,  out  of  which  to  con- 
struct her  whole  story !  Just  as  out  of  a  mastodon's  molar, 
Cuvier  used  to  build  up  the  whole  monster,  never  omitting  a 
rib,  nor  forgetting  a  vertebra !  How  I  should  like  to  say  to 
her,  and  with  a  most  significant  sigh,  "  I  knew  poor  Keats 


AN  IMPATIENT   SUMMONS.  173 

well !  "  Could  I  not  make  even  these  simple  words  convey  a 
world  of  accusation,  blended  with  sorrow  and  regret? 

FranQois  again,  and  on  the  same  errand.  "  Say  I  am 
coming;  that  I  have  only  finished  a  hasty  breakfast,  and 
that  I  am  coming  this  instant,"  cried  I.  Nor  was  it  very 
easy  for  me  to  repress  the  more  impatient  expressions  which 
struggled  for  utterance,  particularly  as  I  saw,  or  fancied  I 
saw,  the  fellow  pass  his  hand  over  his  mouth  to  hide  a  grin 
at  my  expense. 

"  Is  Miss  Herbert  upstairs? " 

''  No,  sir,  she  is  in  the  garden." 

This  was  so  far  pleasant.  I  dreaded  the  thought  of  her 
presence  at  this  interview,  and  I  felt  that  punishment  within 
the  precincts  of  the  jail  was  less  terrible  than  on  the  drop 
before  the  populace;  and  with  this  consoling  reflection  I 
mounted  the  stairs. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

MRS.    KEATS'S    MYSTERIOUS    COMMUNICATION. 

I  KNOCKED  twice  before  I  heard  the  permission  to  enter; 
but  scarcely  had  I  closed  the  door  behind  me,  than  the  old 
lady  advanced,  and,  courtesying  to  me  with  a  manner  of  most 
reverential  politeness,  said,  "When  you  learn,  sir,  that  my 
conduct  has  been  dictated  in  the  interest  of  your  safety,  you 
will,  I  am  sure,  graciously  pardon  many  apparent  rudenesses 
in  my  manner  towards  you,  and  only  see  in  them  my  zeal  to 
serve  you." 

I  could  only  bow  to  a  speech  not  one  syllable  of  which 
was  in  the  least  intelligible  to  me.  She  conducted  me 
courteously  to  a  seat,  and  only  took  her  own  after  I  was 
seated. 

"  I  feel,  sir,"  said  she,  ''that  there  will  be  no  end  to  our 
embarrassments  if  I  do  not  go  straight  to  my  object  and 
say  at  once  that  I  know  you.  I  tell  you  frankly,  sir,  that 
my  brother  did  not  betray  your  secret.  The  instincts  of  his 
calling  —  to  Mm  second  nature  —  were  stronger  than  frater- 
nal love,  and  all  he  said  to  me  was,  '  Martha,  I  have  found 
a  gentleman  who  is  going  south,  and  who,  without  incon- 
venience, can  see  you  safely  as  far  as  Como.'  I  implicitly 
accepted  his  words,  and  agreed  to  set  out  immediately.  I 
suspected  nothing,  —  I  knew  nothing.  It  was  only  before 
going  down  to  dinner  that  the  paragraph  in  the  '  Courrier  du 
Dimanche '  met  my  eye,  and  as  I  read  it,  I  thought  I  should 
have  fainted.  My  first  determination  was  not  to  appear  at 
dinner.  I  felt  that  something  or  other  in  my  manner  would 
betray  my  knowledge  of  your  secret.  My  next  was  to  go 
down  and  behave  with  more  than  usual  sharpness.  You 
may  have  remarked  that  I  was  very  abrupt,  almost,  shall  I 
say,  rude  ?  " 


MRS.  KEATS'S  MYSTERIOUS  COMMUNICATION.      175 

I  tried  to  enter  a  dissent  at  this,  but  did  not  succeed  so 
happily  as  I  meant ;  but  she  resumed  :  — 

*'At  any  cost,  however,  sir,  I  determined  that  I  alone 
should  be  the  depositary  of  your  confidence.  Miss  Her- 
bert is  to  me  a  comparative  stranger;  she  is,  besides, 
very  young ;  she  would  be  in  no  wise  a  suitable  person  to 
intrust  with  such  a  secret,  and  so  I  said,  I  will  pretend  ill- 
ness, and  remain  here  for  a  day ;  I  will  make  some  pretext 
of  dissatisfaction  about  the  expense  of  the  journey ;  I  will 
affect  to  have  had  some  passing  difference,  and  he  can  thus 
leave  us  ere  he  be  discovered.  Not  that  I  desire  this,  sir, 
far  from  it;  this  is  the  brightest  episode  in  a  long  life.  I 
never  imagined  that  I  should  have  enjoyed  such  an  honor ; 
but  I  have  only  to  think  of  your  safety,  and  if  an  old  woman, 
unobservant  and  unremarking  as  myself,  could  penetrate 
your  disguise,  why  not  others  more  keen-sighted  and  inquisi- 
tive?    Don't  you  agree  with  me?  " 

"There  is  much  force  in  what  you  say,  madam,"  said  I; 
with  dignity,  "and  your  words  touch  me  profoundly."  I 
thought  this  a  happy  expression,  for  it  conveyed  a  sort 
of  grand  condescension  that  seemed  to  hit  off  the  occa- 
sion. 

"  You  would  never  guess  how  I  recognized  you,  sir,"  said 
she. 

"  Never,  madam."  I  could  have  given  my  oath  to  this,  if 
required. 

"Well,"  said  she,  with  a  bland  smile,  "it  was  from  the 
resemblance  to  your  mother !  " 

"Indeed!" 

"  Yes ;  you  are  far  more  like  her,  than  your  father,  and 
you  are  scarcely  so  tall  as  he  was." 

"  Perhaps  not,  madam." 

' '  But  you  have  his  manner,  sir,  the  graceful  and  capti- 
vating dignity  that  distinguished  all  your  house ;  this  would 
betray  you  to  the  eyes  of  all  who  have  enjoyed  the  high  privi- 
lege of  knowing  your  family." 

The  allusion  to  our  house  showed  that  we  were  royalties, 
and  I  laid  my  hand  on  my  heart,  and  bowed  as  a  prince 
ought,  blandly  but  haughtily. 

"  Ah,  sir,"  said  she,  with  a  deep  sigh,  "  your  present  enter- 


176  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

prise  fills  me  with  apprehension.  Are  you  not  afraid,  your- 
self, of  the  consequences  ?  " 

I  sighed,  too ;  and  if  the  truth  were  to  be  told,  I  was  very 
much  afraid. 

''  But,  of  course,  you  are  acting  under  advice,  and  with  the 
counsel  of  those  well  able  to  guide  you." 

"  I  cannot  say  I  am,  madam ;  I  am  free  to  tell  you  that 
every  step  I  am  now  taking  is  self -suggested." 

"  Oh,  then,  let  me  implore  you  to  pause,  sir,"  said  she, 
falling  on  her  knees  before  me;  *'let  me  thus  entreat  of 
you  not  to  go  further  in  a  path  so  full  of  danger." 

"  Shall  I  confess,  madam,"  said  I,  proudly,  ''  that  I  do  not 
see  these  dangers  you  speak  of  ?  " 

I  thought  that  on  this  hint  she  would  talk  out,  and  I  might 
be  able  to  pierce  the  veil  of  the  mystery,  and  discover  who  I 
was ;  for  though  very  like  my  mother,  and  shorter  than  my 
father,  I  was  sorely  puzzled  about  my  parentage;  but  she 
only  went  off  into  generalities  about  the  state  of  the  Conti- 
nent and  the  condition  of  Europe  generally.  I  saw  now  that 
my  best  chance  of  ascertaining  something  about  myself  was 
to  obtain  from  her  the  newspaper  that  first  suggested  her  dis- 
covery of  me,  and  T  said  half  carelessly,  *'  Let  me  see  the 
paragraph  which  struck  you  in  the  '  Courrier.'  " 

"Ah,  sir,  you  must  excuse  me,  these  ignoble  writers  have 
little  delicacy  in  alluding  to  the  misfortunes  of  the  great ;  they 
seem  to  revenge  the  littleness  of  their  own  station  on  every 
such  occasion." 

"  You  can  well  imagine,  madam,  how  time  has  accustomed 
me  to  such  petty  insults :  show  me  the  paper." 

' '  Pray  let  me  refuse  you,  sir ;  I  would  not,  however 
blamelessly,  be  associated  in  your  mind  with  what  might 
offend  you." 

Again  I  protested  that  I  was  used  to  such  attacks,  that  I 
knew  all  about  the  wretched  hireling  creatures  who  wrote 
them,  and  that  instead  of  offending,  they  positively  amused 
me,  —  actually  made  me  laugh. 

Thus  urged,  she  proceeded  to  search  for  the  newspaper, 
and  only  after  some  minutes  was  it  that  she  remembered 
Miss  Herbert  had  taken  it  away  to  read  in  the  garden. 
rtShe   proposed  to  send  the  servant  to  fetch   it,    but  this   I 


MRS.  KEATS'S  MYSTERIOUS  COMMUNICATION.      177 

would  not  permit,  pretending  at  last  to  concur  in  her  own 
previously  expressed  contempt  for  the  paragraph,  —  but 
secretly  promising  myself  to  go  in  search  of  it  the  moment 
I  should  be  at  liberty,  —  and  once  more  she  resumed  the 
theme  of  my  rashness,  and  my  dangers,  and  all  the  troubles 
I  might  possibly  bring  upon  my  family,  and  the  grief  I  might 
occasion  my  grandmother. 

Now,  as  there  are  few  men  upon  whom  the  ties  of  family 
and  kindred  imposed  less  rigid  bonds,  I  was  rather  pro- 
voked at  being  reminded  of  obligations  to  my  grandmother, 
and  was  almost  driven  to  declare  that  she  weighed  for  very 
little  in  the  balance  of  my  plans  and  motives.  The  old 
lady,  however,  rescued  me  from  the  indiscretion  by  a  fervent 
entreaty  that  L  would  at  least  ask  a  certain  person  what  he 
thought  of  my  present  step. 

"Will  you  do  this?"  said  she,  with  tears  in  her  eyes. 
*'Will  you  do  it  now?  " 

I  promised  her  faithfully. 

"Will  you  do  it  here,  sir,  at  this  table,  and  let  me  have 
the  proudest  memory  in  my  life  to  recall  the  incident." 

"I  should  like  an  hour  or  two  for  reflection,"  said  I, 
pushed  very  hard  by  this  insistence  of  hers,  for  I  was  sorely 
puzzled  whom  I  was  to  write  to. 

"Oh,"  said  she,  still  tearfully,  "is  it  not  the  habit  of 
hesitating,  sir,  has  cost  your  house  so  dearly  ?  " 

"No,"  said  I,  "we  have  been  always  accounted  prompt  in 
action  and  true  to  our  engagements." 

Heaven  forgive  me!  but  in  this  vainglorious  speech  I 
was  alluding  to  the  motto  of  the  Potts  crest,  —  "Vigilanti- 
bus  omnia  fausta;  "  or,  as  some  one  rendered  it,  "Potts 
answers  to  the  night-bell." 

She  smiled  faintly  at  my  remark.  I  wonder  how  she 
would  have  looked  had  she  read  the  thought  that  sug- 
gested it. 

"But  you  will  write  to  him,  sir?  "  said  she,  once  more. 

I  laid  my  hand  over  what  anatomists  call  the  region  of  the 
heart,  and  tried  to  look  like  Charles  Edward  in  the  prints. 
Meanwhile  my  patience  was  beginning  to  fail  me,  and  I 
felt  that  if  the  mystification  were  to  last  much  longer,  I 
should  infallibly  lose  my  presence  of  mind.     Fortunately, 

12 


178  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

the  old  lady  was  so  full  of  her  theme  that  she  only  asked  to 
be  let  talk  away  without  interruption,  with  many  an  allu- 
sion to  the  dear  Count  and  the  adored  Duchess,  and  a  fer- 
vent hope  that  I  might  be  ultimately  reconciled  to  them 
both, —  a  wish  which  I  had  tact  enough  to  perceive  required 
the  most  guarded  reserve  on  my  part. 

"I  know  1  am  indiscreet,  sir,"  said  she,  at  last;  "but you 
must  pardon  one  whose  zeal  outruns  her  reason." 

And  1  bowed  grandly,  as  I  might  have  done  in  extending 
mercy  to  some  captive  taken  in  battle. 

"There  is  but  one  favor  more,  sir,  I  have  to  beg." 

"Speak  it,  madam.  As  the  courtier  remarked,  if  it  be 
possible  it  is  done,  if  impossible  it  shall  he  done." 

"Well,  sir,  it  is  that  you  will  not  leave  us  till  you  hear 
from  —  "  She  hesitated  as  if  afraid  to  say  the  name,  and 
then  added,  "the  Rue  St.  Georges.  Will  you  give  me  this 
pledge?" 

Now,  though  this  would  have  been,  all  things  considered, 
an  arrangement  very  like  to  have  lasted  my  life,  I  could 
not  help  hesitating  ere  I  assented,  not  to  say  that  our  dear 
friend  of  the  Rue  St.  Georges,  whoever  he  was,  might  pos- 
sibly not  concur  in  all  the  delusions  indispensable  to  my 
happiness.  1  therefore  demurred,  —  that  is,  in  legal  accept- 
ance, I  deferred  assent,  —as  though  to  say,  "We  '11  see." 

"At  all  events,  sir,  you '11  accompany  us  to  Coma?" 

"You  have  my  pledge  to  that,  madam." 

"And  meanwhile,  sir,  you  agree  with  me  that  it  is  better 
I  should  continue  to  behave  towards  you  with  a  cold  and 
distant  reserve." 

"Unquestionably." 

"Rarely  meeting,  seldom  or  never  conversing." 

"I  should  say  never,  madam;  making,  in  fact,  any  com- 
munication you  may  desire  to  reach  me  through  the  interven- 
tion of  that  young  person,  — I  forget  her  name." 

"Miss  Herbert,  sir." 

"Exactly;  and  who  appears  gentle  and  unobtrusive." 

"She  is  a  gentlewoman  by  birth,  sir,"  said  the  old  lady, 
tetchily. 

"I  have  no  doubt  of  it,  madam,  or  she  would  not  be  found 
in  association  with  you." 


MRS.  KEATS'S  MYSTERIOUS  COMMUNICATION.      179 

She  courtesied  deeply  at  the  compliment,  and  I  bowed  as 
low,  and,  backing  and  bowing,  I  gained  the  door,  dying  with 
eagerness,  to  make  my  escape. 

"Will  you  pardon  me,  sir,  if,  after  all  the  agitation  of 
this  meeting,  I  may  not  feel  equal  to  appear  at  dinner 
to-day  ?  " 

"You  will  charge  that  young  person  to  give  news  of  your 
health,  however,"  said  I,  insinuating  that  I  expected  to  see 
Miss  Herbert. 

"Certainly,  sir;  and  if  it  should  be  your  pleasure  that 
she  should  dine  with  you,  to  preserve  appearances  —  " 

"  You  are  right,  madam ;  your  remark  is  full  of  wisdom. 
I  shall  expect  to  meet  her."  And  again  I  bowed  low,  and 
ere  she  recovered  from  another  reverential  courtesy  I  had 
closed  the  door  behind  me,  and  was  half-way  downstairs. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    MYSTERY   EXPLAINED. 

As  between  the  man  who  achieves  greatness  and  him  who 
has  greatness  thrust  upon  him  there  lies  a  whole  world  of 
space,  so  is  there  an  immense  interval  between  one  who  is 
the  object  of  his  own  delusions  and  him  who  forms  the  sub- 
ject of  delusion  to  others. 

My  reader  may  have  already  noticed  that  nothing  was 
easier  for  me  than  to  lend  myself  to  the  idle  current  of  my 
fancy.  Most  men  who  build  ''castles  in  Spain,'*  as  the  old 
adage  calls  them,  do  so  purely  to  astonish  their  friends.  / 
indulged  in  these  architectural  extravagances  in  a  very 
different  spirit.  I  built  my  castle  to  live  in  it;  from  foun- 
dation to  roof-tree,  I  planned  every  detail  of  it  to  suit  my 
own  taste,  and  all  my  study  was  to  make  it  as  habitable  and 
comfortable  as  I  could.  Ay,  and  what 's  more,  live  in  it  I 
did,  though  very  often  the  tenure  was  a  brief  one ;  some- 
times while  breaking  my  egg  at  breakfast,  sometimes  as  I 
drew  on  my  gloves  to  walk  out,  and  yet  no  terror  of  a  short 
lease  ever  deterred  me  from  finishing  the  edifice  in  the  most 
expensive  manner.  I  gilded  my  architraves  and  frescoed 
my  ceilings  as  though  all  were  to  endure  for  centuries;  and 
laid  out  the  gardens  and  disposed  the  parterres  as  though  I 
were  to  walk  in  them  in  my  extreme  old  age.  This  faculty 
of  lending  myself  to  an  illusion  by  no  means  adhered  to  me 
where  the  deception  was  supplied  by  another;  from  the 
moment  I  entered  one  of  their  castles,  I  felt  myself  in  a 
strange  house.  I  continually  forgot  where  the  stairs  were, 
what  this  gallery  opened  on,  where  that  corridor  led  to. 
No  use  was  it  to  say,  "You  are  at  home  here.  You  are  at 
your  own  fireside."     I  knew  and  I  felt  that  I  was  not. 


THE  MYSTERY  EXPLAINED.  181 

By  this  declaration  I  mean  my  reader  to  understand  that, 
while  ready  for  any  exigency  of  a  story  devised  by  myself, 
I  was  perfectly  miserable  at  playing  a  part  written  for  me 
by  a  friend ;  nor  was  this  feeling  diminished  by  the  thought 
that  I  really  did  not  know  the  person  I  was  believed  to 
represent ;  nor  had  I  the  very  vaguest  clew  to  his  antece- 
dents or  belongings. 

As  I  set  out  in  search  of  Miss  Herbert,  these  were  the 
reflections  I  revolved,  occasionally  asking  myself,  "Is  the 
old  lady  at  all  touched  in  the  upper  story?  Is  there  not 
something  private-asylum-ish  in  these  wanderings  ?  "  But 
still,  apart  from  this  special  instance,  she  was  a  marvel  of 
acuteness  and  good  sense.  I  found  Miss  Herbert  in  a  little 
arbor  at  her  work ;  the  newspaper  on  the  bench  beside  her. 

"So,"  said  she,  without  looking  up,  "you  have  been  mak- 
ing a  long  visit  upstairs.  You  found  Mrs.  Keats  very 
agreeable,  or  you  were  so  yourself." 

"Is  there  anything  wrong  hereabouts?"  said  I,  touching 
my  forehead  with  my  finger. 

"Nothing  whatever." 

"No  fancies,  no  delusions  about  certain  people?** 

"None  whatever." 

"None  of  the  family  suspected  of  anything  odd  or 
eccentric  ?  " 

"Not  that  I  have  ever  heard  of.     Why  do  you  ask? *' 

"Well,  it  was  a  mere  fancy,  perhaps,  on  my  part;  but  her 
manner  to-day  struck  me  as  occasionally  strange,  —  almost 
flighty." 

"And  on  what  subject?  " 

"I  am  scarcely  at  liberty  to  say  that;  in  fact,  I  am  not  at 
all  free  to  divulge  it,"  said  I,  mysteriously,  and  somewhat 
gratified  to  remark  that  I  had  excited  a  most  intense  curi- 
osity on  her  part  to  learn  the  subject  of  our  interview. 

"  Oh,  pray  do  not  make  any  imprudent  revelations  to  me,** 
said  she,  pettishly;  "which,  apart  from  the  indiscretion, 
would  have  the  singular  demerit  of  affording  me  not  the 
slightest  pleasure.  I  am  not  afflicted  with  the  malady  of 
curiosity." 

"What  a  blessing  to  you!  Now,  I  am  the  most  inquisi- 
tive of  mankind.     I  feel  that  if  I  were  a  clerk  in  a  bank, 


182  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I'd  spend  the  day  prying  into  every  one's  account,  and  learn- 
ing the  exact  state  of  his  balance-sheet.  If  I  were  employed 
in  the  post-office,  no  terror  of  the  law  could  restrain  me  from 
reading  the  letters.  Tell  me  that  any  one  has  a  secret  in  his 
heart,  and  I  feel  I  could  cut  him  open  to  get  at  it!  " 

"I  don't  think  you  are  giving  a  flattering  picture  of  your- 
self in  all  this,"  said  she,  peevishly. 

"I  am  aware  of  that.  Miss  Herbert;  but  I  am  also  one  of 
those  who  do  not  trade  upon  qualities  they  have  no  preten- 
sion to." 

She  flushed  a  deep  crimson  at  this,  and  after  a  moment 
said, — 

"Has  it  not  occurred  to  you,  sir,  that  people  who  seldom 
meet  except  to  exchange  ungracious  remarks  would  show 
more  judgment  by  avoiding  each  other's  society?" 

Oh,  how  my  heart  thrilled  at  this  pettish  speech!  In 
Hans  Griiter's  ''Courtship,"  he  says,  "1  knew  she  loved  me, 
for  we  never  met  without  a  quarrel."  "I  have  thought  of 
that,  too.  Miss  Herbert,"  said  I,  "but  there  are  outward 
observances  to  be  kept  up,  conventionalities  to  be  respected." 

"None  of  which,  however,  require  that  you  should  come 
out  and  sit  here  while  I  am  at  my  work,"  said  she,  with 
suppressed  passion. 

"I  came  out  here  to  search  for  the  newspaper,"  said  I, 
taking  it  up,  and  stretching  myself  on  the  grassy  sward  to 
read  at  leisure. 

She  arose  at  once,  and,  gathering  all  the  articles  of  her 
work  into  a  basket,  walked  away. 

"Don't  let  me  hunt  you  away.  Miss  Herbert,"  said  I, 
indolently;  "anywhere  else  will  suit  me  just  as  well.  Pray 
don't  go."  But  without  vouchsafing  to  utter  a  word,  or 
even  turn  her  head,  she  continued  her  way  towards  the 
house. 

"The  morning  she  slapped  my  face,"  says  Hans,  "filled 
the  measure  of  my  bliss,  for  I  then  saw  she  could  not  control 
her  feelings  for  me."  This  passage  recurred  to  me  as  I  lay 
there,  and  I  hugged  myself  in  the  thought  that  such  a 
moment  of  delight  might  yet  be  mine.  The  profound  Ger- 
man explains  this  sentiment  well.  "With  women,"  says  he, 
"love  is  like  the  idol  worship  of  an  Indian  tribe;  at  the 


THE  MYSTERY  EXPLAINED.  183 

moment  their  hearts  are  bursting  with  devotion,  they  like  to 
cut  and  wound  and  maltreat  their  god.  With  thern^  this  is 
the  ecstasy  of  their  passion." 

I  now  saw  that  the  girl  was  in  love  with  me,  and  that  she 
did  not  know  it  herself.  I  take  it  that  the  sensations  of  a 
man  who  suddenly  discovers  that  the  pretty  girl  he  has  been 
admiring  is  captivated  by  his  attentions,  are  very  like  what 
a  head  clerk  ma}^  feel  at  being  sent  for  by  the  house,  and 
informed  that  he  is  now  one  of  the  firm!  This  may  seem  a 
commercial  formula  to  employ,  but  it  will  serve  to  show  my 
meaning;  and  as  1  lay  there  on  that  velvet  turf,  what  a 
delicious  vision  spread  itself  around  me !  At  one  moment 
we  were  rich,  travelling  in  splendor  through  Europe,  amass- 
ing art-treasures  wherever  we  went  and  despoiling  all  the 
great  galleries  of  their  richest  gems.  I  was  the  associate 
of  all  that  was  distinguished  in  literature  and  science,  and 
my  wife  the  chosen  friend  of  queens  and  princesses.  How 
unaffected  we  were,  how  unspoiled  by  fortune!  Approach- 
able by  all,  our  graceful  benevolence  seemed  to  elevate  its 
object  and  make  of  the  recipient  the  benefactor.  What  a 
world  of  bliss  this  vile  dross  men  call  gold  can  scatter! 
"There  —  there,  good  people,"  said  I,  blandly,  waving  my 
hand,  *'no  illuminations,  no  bonfires;  your  happy  faces  are 
the  brightest  of  all  welcomes."  Then  we  were  suddenly 
poor,  — out  of  caprice,  just  to  see  how  we  should  like  it, 
—  and  living  in  a  little  cottage  under  Snowden,  and  I  was 
writing.  Heaven  knows  what,  for  the  periodicals,  and  my 
wife  rocking  a  little  urchin  in  a  cradle,  whom  we  constantly 
awoke  by  kissing,  each  pretending  that  it  was  all  the  other's 
fault,  till  we  ratified  a  peace  in  the  same  fashion.  Then  I 
remembered  the  night,  never  to  be  forgotten,  when  I  re- 
ceived my  appointment  as  something  in  the  antipodes,  and 
we  went  up  to  town  to  thank  the  great  man  who  bestowed 
it,  and  he  asked  us  to  dinner,  and  he  was,  I  fancied,  more 
than  polite  to  my  wife,  and  I  sulked  about  it  when  we  got 
home,  and  she  petted  and  caressed  me,  and  we  were  better 
friends  than  ever,  and  I  swore  I  would  not  accept  the  Min- 
ister's bounty,  and  we  set  off  back  again  to  our  cottage  in 
Wales,  and  there  we  were  when  I  came  to  myself  once  more. 

It  is  always  pleasant  —  at  least,  I  have  ever  felt  it  so,  on 


184  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

awaking  from  a  dream  or  a  revery  —  to  know  that  one  has 
borne  himself  well  in  some  imaginary  crisis  of  difficulty 
and  peril.  I  like  to  think  that  I  was  in  no  hurry  to  get 
into  the  longboat.  I  am  glad  I  gave  poor  Dick  that  last 
fifty-pound  note,  —  my  last  in  the  world,  —  and  I  rejoice  to 
remember  that  I  did  not  run  away  from  that  grizzly  bear, 
but  sent  the  four-pound  ball  right  into  the  very  middle  of 
his  forehead.  You  feel  in  all  these  that  the  metal  of  your 
nature  has  been  tested,  and  come  out  pure  gold ;  at  all  events, 
I  did,  and  was  very  happy  thereat.  It  was  not  till  after 
some  little  time  that  I  could  get  myself  clear  out  of  dream- 
land, and  back  to  the  actual  world  of  small  debts  and  diffi- 
culties, and  then  I  bethought  me  of  the  newspaper  which  lay 
unread  beside  me. 

I  began  it  now,  resolved  to  examine  it  from  end  to  end, 
till  I  discovered  the  passage  that  alluded  to  me.  It  was  so 
far  pleasant  reading,  that  it  was  novel  and  original.  A 
very  able  leader  set  forth  that  nothing  could  equal  the  bless- 
ings of  the  Pope's  rule  at  Rome, —  no  people  were  so  happy, 
so  prosperous,  or  so  contented, —  that  all  the  granaries  were 
full,  and  all  the  jails  empty,  and  the  only  persons  of  small 
incomes  in  the  state  were  the  cardinals,  and  that  they  were 
too  heavenly-minded  to  care  for  it.  After  this,  there  came 
some  touching  anecdotes  of  that  good  man  the  late  King  of 
Naples.  And  then  there  was  a  letter  from  Frohsdorf,  with 
fifteen  francs  enclosed  to  the  inhabitants  of  a  village  sub- 
merged by  an  inundation.  There  were  pleasant  little  para- 
graphs, too,  about  England,  and  all  the  money  she  was 
spending  to  propagate  infidelity  and  spread  the  slave-trade, 
—  the  two  great  and  especial  objects  of  her  policy,  —  after 
which  came  insults  to  France  and  injustice  to  Ireland.  The 
general  tone  of  the  print  was  war  with  every  one  but  some 
twenty  or  thirty  old  ladies  and  gentlemen  living  in  exile 
somewhere  in  Bohemia.  Now,  none  of  these  things  touched 
we,  and  I  was  growing  very  weary  of  my  search  when  I 
lighted  upon  the  following :  — 

"  We  are  informed,  on  authority  that  we  cannot  question,  that  the 
young  C.  de  P.  is  now  making  the  tour  of  Germany  alone  and  in 
disguise,  his  object  being  to  ascertain  for  himself  how  the  various 
relatives  of  his  house,  on  the  maternal  side,  would  feel  affected  by  any 


THE  MYSTERY  EXPLAINED.  185 

movement  in  France  to  renew  his  pretensions.  Strange,  undigni- 
fied, and  ill  advised  as  such  a  step  must  seem,  there  is  nothing  in  it 
at  all  repulsive  to  the  well-known  traditions  of  the  younger  branch. 
Our  informant  himself  met  the  P.  at  Mayence,  and  speedily  recog- 
nized him,  from  the  marked  resemblance  he  bears  to  the  late 
Duchess,  his  mother ;  he  addressed  him  at  once  by  his  title,  but  was 
met  by  the  cold  assurance  that  he  was  mistaken,  and  that  a  casual 
similarity  in  features  had  already  led  others  into  the  same  error. 
The  General  —  for  our  informant  is  an  old  and  honored  soldier  of 
France  —  confessed  he  was  astounded  at  the  aplomb  and  self-pos- 
session displayed  by  so  young  a  man ;  and  although  their  conversa- 
tion lasted  for  nearly  an  hour,  and  ranged  over  a  wide  field,  the  C. 
never  for  an  instant  exposed  himself  to  a  detection,  nor  offered  the 
slightest  clew  to  his  real  rank  and  station.  Indeed,  he  affected  to  be 
English  by  birth,  which  his  great  facility  in  the  language  enabled 
him  to  do.    When  he  quitted  Mayence,  it  was  for  Central  Germany." 

Here  was  the  whole  mystery  revealed,  and  I  was  no  less 
a  person  than  a  royal  prince, — very  like  my  mother,  but 
neither  so  tall  nor  robust  as  my  distinguished  father! 
''Oh,  Potts!  in  all  the  wildest  ravings  of  your  most  florid 
moments  you  never  arrived  at  this !  " 

A  very  strange  thrill  went  through  me  as  I  finished  this 
paragraph.  It  came  this  wise.  There  is,  in  one  of  Hoff- 
man's tales,  the  story  of  a  man  who,  in  a  compact  with  the 
Fiend,  acquired  the  power  of  personating  whomsoever  he 
pleased,  but  who,  sated  at  last  with  the  enjoyment  of  this 
privilege,  and  eager  for  a  new  sensation,  determined  he 
would  try  whether  the  part  of  the  Devil  himself  might  not 
be  amusing.  Apparently  Mephistopheles  won't  stand  jok- 
ing, for  he  resented  the  liberty  by  depriving  the  transgressor 
of  his  identity  forever,  and  made  him  become  each  instant 
whatever  character  occurred  to  the  mind  of  him  he  talked 
to. 

Though  the  parallel  scarcely  applied,  the  very  thought  of 
it  sent  an  aguish  thrill  through  me,  —  a  terror  so  great  and 
acute  that  it  was  very  long  before  I  could  turn  the  medal 
round  and  read  it  on  the  reverse.  There,  indeed,  was  mat- 
ter for  vainglory!  "It  was  but  t'other  day,"  thought  I, 
"  and  Lord  Keldriim  and  his  friends  fancied  I  was  their 
intimate  acquaintance,  Jack  Burgoyne ;  and  though  they 
soon  found  out  the  mistake,  the  error  led  to  an  invitation  to 


186  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

dinner,  a  delightful  evening,  and,  alas !  that  I  should  own, 
a  variety  of  consequences,  some  of  which  proved  less  delight- 
ful. Now,  however.  Fortune  is  in  a  more  amiable  mood; 
she  will  have  it  that  I  resemble  a  prince.  It  is  a  project 
which  I  neither  aid  nor  abet;  but  I  am  not  childish  enough 
to  refuse  the  role  any  more  than  I  should  spoil  the  Christmas 
revelries  of  a  country-house  by  declining^a  part  in  a  tableau 
or  in  private  theatricals.  I  say,  in  the  one  case  as  in  the 
other,  '  Here  is  Potts !  make  of  him  what  you  will.  Never 
is  he  happier  than  by  affording  pleasure  to  his  friends. '  To 
what  end,  1  would  ask,  should  I  rob  that  old  lady  upstairs 
at  No.  12,  evidently  a  widow,  and  with  not  too  many  enjoy- 
ments to  solace  her  old  age,  —  why  should  I  rob  her  of  what 
she  herself  called  the  proudest  episode  in  her  life?  Are  not, 
as  the  moralists  tell  us,  all  our  joys  fleeting?  Why,  then, 
object  to  this  one  that  it  may  only  last  for  a  few  days?  Let 
us  suppose  it  only  to  endure  throughout  our  journey,  and 
the  poor  old  soul  will  be  so  happy,  never  caring  for  the 
fatigues  of  the  road,  never  fretting  about  the  inn-keepers' 
charges,  but  delighted  to  know  that  his  Royal  Highness 
enjoys  himself,  and  sits  over  his  bottle  of  Chambertin  every 
evening  in  the  garden,  apparently  as  devoid  of  care  as 
though  he  were  a  bagman." 

I  cannot  say  how  it  may  be  with  others,  but,  for  myself, 
I  have  always  experienced  an  immense  sense  of  relief,  actual 
repose,  whenever  I  personated  somebody  else;  I  felt  as 
though  I  had  left  the  man  Potts  at  home  to  rest  and  refresh 
himself,  and  took  an  airing  as  another  gentleman;  just  as  I 
might  have  spared  my  own  paletot  by  putting  on  a  friend's 
coat  in  a  thunderstorm.  Now  I  did  wish  for  a  little  repose, 
I  felt  it  would  be  good  for  me.  As  to  the  special  part 
allotted  me,  I  took  it  just  as  an  obliging  actor  plays  Hamlet 
or  the  Cock  to  convenience  the  manager.  Mrs.  Keats  likes 
it,  and,  I  repeat,  I  do  not  object  to  it. 

It  was  evident  that  the  old  lady  was  not  going  to  commu- 
nicate her  secret  to  her  companion,  and  this  was  a  great 
source  of  satisfaction  to  me.  Whatever  delusions  I  threw 
around  Miss  Herbert  I  intended  should  be  lasting.  The 
traits  in  which  I  would  invest  myself  to  her  eyes,  my  per- 
sonal prowess,  coolness  in  danger,  skill  in  all  manly  exer- 


THE   MYSTERY  EXPLAINED.  187 

cises,  together  with  a  large  range  of  general  gifts  and  ac- 
quirements, I  meant  to  accompany  me  through  all  time ;  and 
I  am  a  sufficient  believer  in  magnetism  to  feel  assured  that 
by  imposing  upon  her  I  should  go  no  small  part  of  the  road 
to  deceiving  myself,  and  that  the  first  step  in  any  gift  is  to 
suppose  you  are  eminently  suited  to  it,  is  a  well-known  and 
readily  acknowledged  maxim.  Women  grow  pretty  from 
looking  in  the  glass ;  why  should  not  men  grow  brave  from 
constantly  contemplating  their  own  courage  ? 

"Yes,  Potts,  be  a  Prince,  and  see  how  it  will  agree  with 
you  I" 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

HOW   I    PLAY   THE    PRINCE. 

Mrs.  Keats  came  down,  and  our  dinner  that  day  was  some- 
what formal.  I  don't  think  any  of  us  felt  quite  at  ease, 
and,  for  my  own  part,  it  was  a  relief  to  me  when  the  old  lady 
asked  my  leave  to  retire  after  her  coffee.  ''If  you  should 
feel  lonely,  sir,  and  if  Miss  Herbert's  company  would 
prove  agreeable  —  " 

"Yes,"  said  I,  languidly,  "that  young  person  will  find  me 
in  the  garden."  And  therewith  I  gave  my  orders  for  a  small 
table  under  a  great  weeping-ash,  and  the  usual  accompani- 
ment of  my  after-dinner  hours,  a  cool  flask  of  Chambertin. 
I  had  time  to  drink  more  than  two-thirds  of  my  Burgundy 
before  Miss  Herbert  appeared.  It  was  not  that  the  hour 
hung  heavily  on  me,  or  that  I  was  not  in  a  mood  of  con- 
siderable enjoyment,  but  somehow  I  was  beginning  to  feel 
chafed  and  impatient  at  her  long  delay.  Could  she  possibly 
have  remonstrated  against  the  impropriety  of  being  left  alone 
with  a  young  man  ?  Had  she  heard,  by  any  mischance,  that 
impertinent  phrase  by  which  I  designated  her?  Had  Mrs. 
Keats  herself  resented  the  cool  style  of  my  permission  by  a 
counter- ord er ?  "I  wish  I  knew  what  detains  her!"  cried 
I  to  myself,  just  as  I  heard  her  step  on  the  gravel,  and  then 
saw  her  coming,  in  very  leisurely  fashion,  up  the  walk. 

Determined  to  display  an  indifference  the  equal  of  her 
own,  I  waited  till  she  was  almost  close;  and  then,  rising 
languidly,  I  offered  her  a  chair  with  a  superb  air  of  Brum- 
melism,  while  I  listlessly  said,  ''Won't  you  take  a  seat?" 

It  was  growing  duskish,  but  I  fancied  I  saw  a  smile  oa 
her  lip  as  she  sat  down. 

"May  I  offer  you  a  glass  of  wine  or  a  cigar?"  said  I^ 
carelessly. 

"Neither,  thank  you,"  said  she,  with  gravity. 


HOW  I  PLAY  THE  PRINCE.  189 

"Almost  all  women  of  fashion  smoke  nowadays,"  I  re- 
sumed. "The  Empress  of  the  French  smokes  this  sort  of 
thing  here;  and  the  Queen  of  Bavaria  smokes  and  chews." 

She  seemed  rebuked  at  this,  and  said  nothing. 

"As  for  myself,"  said  I,  "I  am  nothing  without  tobacco, 
—  positively  nothing.  I  remember  one  night,  —  it  was  the 
fourth  sitting  of  the  Congress  at  Paris,  that  Sardinian  fel- 
low, you  know  his  name,  came  to  me  and  said,  — 

"  '  There  's  that  confounded  question  of  the  Danubian 
Provinces  coming  on  to-morrow,  and  Gortschakofif  is  the 
only  one  who  knows  anything  about  it.  Where  are  we 
to  get  at  anything  like  information  ? ' 

"  '  When  do  you  want  it.  Count?  '  said  I. 

"  '  To-morrow,  by  eleven  at  latest.  There  must  be,  at 
least,  a  couple  of  hours  to  study  it  before  the  Congress 
meets.* 

"  '  Tell  them  to  bring  in  ten  candles,  fifty  cigars,  and  two 
quires  of  foolscap, '  said  I,  *  and  let  no  one  pass  this  door  till 
I  ring.'  At  ten  minutes  to  eleven  next  morning  he  had  in 
his  hands  that  memoir  which  Lord  C.  said  embodied  the 
prophetic  wisdom  of  Edmund  Burke  with  the  practical  states- 
manship of  the  great  Commoner.  Perhaps  you  have  read 
it?" 

"No,  sir." 

"Your  tastes  do  not  probably  Incline  to  affairs  of  state. 
If  so,  only  suggest  what  you  'd  like  to  talk  on.  I  am  indif- 
ferently skilled  in  most  subjects.  Are  you  for  the  poets  ? 
I  am  ready,  from  Dante  to  the  Biglow  Papers.  Shall  it  be 
arts?  I  know  the  whole  thing  from  Memmling  and  his 
long-nosed  saints,  to  Leech  and  the  Punchists.  Make  it 
antiquities,  agriculture,  trade,  dress,  the  drama,  conchol- 
ogy,  or  cock-fighting,  — I  'm  your  man;  so  go  in;  and  don't 
be  afraid  that  you  '11  disconcert  me." 

"I  assure  you,  sir,  that  my  fears  would  attach  far  more 
naturally  to  my  own  insufficiency." 

"Well,"  said  I,  after  a  pause,  "there 's  something  in 
that.  Macaulay  used  to  be  afraid  of  me.  Whenever  Mrs. 
Montagu  Stanhope  asked  him  to  one  of  her  Wednesday 
dinners,  he  always  declined  if  I  was  to  be  there.  You  don't 
seem  surprised  at  that  ?  " 


190  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"No,  sir,"  said  she,  in  the  same  quiet,  grave  fashion. 

"What's  the  reason,  young  lady,"  said  I,  somewhat 
sternly,  "that  you  persist  in  saying  '  sir  '  on  every  occasion 
that  you  address  me?  The  ease  of  that  intercourse  that 
should  subsist  between  us  is  marred  by  this  Americanism. 
The  pleasant  interchange  of  thought  loses  the  charming  fea- 
ture of  equality.     How  is  this?" 

"I  am  not  at  liberty  to  say,  sir." 

"You  are  not  at  liberty  to  say,  young  lady?"  said  I, 
severely.  "You  tell  me  distinctly  that  your  manner  towards 
me  is  based  upon  a  something  which  you  must  not  reveal  ?  " 

"I  am  srre,  sir,  you  have  too  much  generosity  to  press  me 
on  a  subject  of  which  I  cannot,  or  ought  not  to  speak." 

That  fatal  Burgundy  had  got  into  my  brains,  while  the 
princely  delusion  was  uppermost;  and  if  I  had  been  sub- 
mitted to  the  thumbscrew  now,  I  would  have  died  one  of  the 
Orleans  family. 

"Mademoiselle,"  said  I,  grandly,  "I  have  been  fortu- 
nately, or  unfortunately,  brought  up  in  a  class  that  never 
tolerates  contradiction.  When  we  ask,  we  feel  that  we 
order." 

"Oh,  sir,  if  you  but  knew  the  difficulty  I  am  in  —  " 

"Take  courage,  my  dear  creature,"  said  I,  blending  con- 
descension with  something  w^armer.  "You  will  at  least 
be  reposing  your  confidence  where  it  will  be  worthily 
bestowed." 

"  But  I  have  promised  —  not  exactly  promised ;  but  Mrs. 
Keats  enjoined  me  imperatively  not  to  betray  what  she  re- 
vealed to  me." 

"Gracious  Powers!  "  cried  I,  "she  has  not  surely  commu- 
nicated my  secret,  —  she  has  not  told  you  who  I  am  ?  " 

"No,  sir,  I  assure  you  most  solemnly  that  she  has  not; 
but  being  annoyed  by  what  she  remarked  as  the  freedom  of 
my  manner  towards  you  at  dinner,  the  readiness  with  which 
I  replied  to  your  remarks,  and  what  she  deemed  the  want  of 
deference  I  displayed  for  them,  she  took  me  to  task  this 
evening,  and,  without  intending  it,  even  before  she  knew, 
dropped  certain  expressions  which  showed  me  that  you  were 
one  of  the  very  highest  in  rank,  though  it  was  your  pleasure 
to  travel  for  the  moment  in  this  obscurity  and  disguise. 


HOW  I  PLAY  THE  PRINCE.  191 

She  quickly  perceived  the  indiscretion  she  had  committed, 
and  said,  '  Now,  Miss  Herbert,  that  an  accident  has  put 
you  in  possession  of  certain  circumstances,  which  I  had 
neither  the  will  nor  the  right  to  reveal,  will  you  do  me  the 
inestimable  favor  to  employ  this  knowledge  in  such  a  way 
as  may  not  compromise  me? '  I  told  her,  of  course,  that  I 
would ;  and  having  remarked  how  she  occasionally  —  inad- 
vertently, perhaps  —  used  '  sir  '  in  addressing  you,  I  deemed 
the  imitation  a  safe  one,  while  it  as  constantly  acted  as  a 
sort  of  monitor  over  myself  to  repress  any  relapse  into 
familiarity." 

"I  am  very  sorry  for  all  this,"  said  I,  taking  her  hand  in 
mine,  and  employing  my  most  insinuating  of  manners 
towards  her.  "As  it  is  more  than  doubtful  that  I  shall  ever 
resume  the  station  that  once  pertained  to  me ;  as,  in  fact,  it 
may  be  my  fortune  to  occupy  for  the  rest  of  life  an  humble 
and  lowly  condition,  my  ambition  would  have  been  to  draw 
towards  me  in  that  modest  station  such  sympathies  and 
affections  as  might  attach  to  one  so  circumstanced.  My 
plan  was  to  assume  an  obscure  name,  seek  out  some  unfre- 
quented spot,  and  there,  with  the  love  of  one  —  one  only  — 
solve  the  great  problem,  whether  happiness  is  not  as  much 
the  denizen  of  the  thatched  cottage  as  of  the  gilded  palace. 
The  first  requirement  of  my  scheme  was  that  my  secret 
should  be  in  my  own  keeping.  One  can  steel  his  own  heart 
against  vain  regrets  and  longings;  but  one  cannot  secure 
himself  against  the  influence  of  those  sympathies  which  come 
from  without,  the  unwise  promptings  of  zealous  followers, 
the  hopes  and  wishes  of  those  who  read  your  submission  as 
mere  apathy." 

I  paused  and  sighed;  she  sighed,  too,  and  there  was  a 
silence  between  us. 

"Must  she  not  feel  very  happy  and  very  proud,"  thought 
I,  "to  be  sitting  there  on  the  same  bench  with  a  prince,  her 
hand  in  his,  and  he  pouring  out  all  his  confidence  in  her 
ear?     I  cannot  fancy  a  situation  more  full  of  interest." 

"After  all,  sir,"  said  she,  calmly,  "remember  that  Mrs. 
Keats  alone  knows  your  secret.  /  have  not  the  vaguest 
suspicion  of  it." 

And  yet,"  said  I,  tenderly,  "it  is  to  you  I  would  confide 


(( 


192  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

it;  it  is  in  your  keeping  I  would  wish  to  leave  it;  it  is  from 
you  I  would  ask  counsel  as  to  my  future." 

"Surely,  sir,  it  is  not  to  such  inexperience  as  mine  you 
would  address  yourself  in  a  difficulty  ?  " 

*'The  plan  I  would  carry  out  demands  none  of  that  crafty 
argument  called  '  knowing  the  world. '  All  that  acquaintance 
with  the  by-play  of  life,  its  conventionalities  and  exactions, 
would  be  sadly  out  of  place  in  an  Alpine  village,  or  a 
Tyrolese  Dorf,  where  I  mean  to  pitch  my  tent.  Do  you  not 
think  that  your  interest  might  be  persuaded  to  track  me 
so  far?" 

*'Oh,  sir,  I  shall  never  cease  to  follow  your  steps  with 
the  deepest  anxiety." 

"Would  it  not  be  possible  for  me  to  secure  a  lease  of  that 
sympathy  ?  " 

"Can  you  tell  me  what  o'clock  it  is,  sir?"  said  she,  very 
gravely. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  rather  put  out  by  so  sudden  a  diversion; 
*'it  is  a  few  minutes  after  nine." 

"Pray  excuse  my  leaving  you,  sir,  but  Mrs.  Keats  takes 
her  tea  at  nine,  and  will  expect  me." 

And,  with  a  very  respectful  courtesy,  she  withdrew, 
before  I  could  recover  my  astonishment  at  this  abrupt 
departure. 

"I  trust  that  my  Royal  Highness  said  nothing  indis- 
creet," muttered  I  to  myself;  "though,  upon  my  life,  this 
hasty  exit  would  seem  to  imply  it." 


CHAPTER  XXn. 

INCIDENTS    OP   THE    SECOND   DAY's   JOURNEY. 

We  continued  our  journey  the  next  morning,  but  it  was  not 
without  considerable  diflSculty  that  I  succeeded  in  maintain- 
ing my  former  place  in  the  cabriolet.  That  stupid  old 
woman  fancied  that  princes  were  born  to  be  bored,  and 
suggested  accordingly  that  I  should  travel  inside  with  her, 
leaving  the  macaw  and  the  toy  terriers  to  keep  company 
with  Miss  Herbert.  It  was  only  by  insisting  on  an  out- 
side place  as  a  measure  of  health  that  J  at  last  prevailed, 
telling  her  that  Dr.  Corvisart  was  peremptory  on  two  points 
regarding  me.  "Let  him,"  said  he,  "have  abundance  of 
fresh  air,  and  never  be  without  some  young  companion." 

And  so  we  were  again  in  our  little  leathern  tent,  high  up 
in  the  fresh  breezy  atmosphere,  above  dusty  roads,  and 
with  a  glorious  view  over  that  lovely  country  that  forms 
the  approach  to  the  Black  Forest.  The  road  was  hilly, 
and  the  carriage-way  a  heavy  one;  but  we  had  six  horses, 
who  trotted  along  briskly,  shaking  their  merry  bells,  and 
flourishing  their  scarlet  tassels,  while  the  postilions  cracked 
their  whips  or  broke  out  into  occasional  bugle  performances, 
principally  intended  to  announce  to  the  passing  peasants 
that  we  were  very  great  folk,  and  well  able  to  pay  for  all 
the  noise  we  required. 

I  was  not  ashamed  to  confess  my  enjoyment  in  thus  whirl- 
ing along  at  some  ten  miles  the  hour,  remembering  how  that 
great  sage  Dr.  Johnson  had  confessed  to  a  like  pleasure, 
and,  animated  by  the  inspiriting  air  and  the  lovely  landscape, 
could  not  help  asking  Miss  Herbert  if  she  did  not  feel  it 
"  very  jolly." 

She  assented  with  a  sort  of  constrained  courtesy  that  by 
no  means  responded  to  the  warmth  of  my  own  sensations, 
and  I  felt  vexed  and  chafed  accordingly. 

IS 


194  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

** Perhaps  you  prefer  travelling  inside?"  said  I,  with 
some  pique. 

*'No,  sir." 

"  Perhaps  you  dislike  travelling  altogether?  " 

"  No,  sir." 

*' Perhaps  —  "  But  I  checked  myself,  and  with  a  some- 
what stiff  air,  I  said,  "  Would  you  like  a  book?  " 

"  If  it  would  not  be  rude  to  read,  sir,  while  you  —  " 

**  Oh,  not  at  all,  never  mind  me,  I  have  more  than  enough 
to  think  of.  Here  are  some  things  bj^  Dumas,  and  Paul 
Feval,  and  some  guide-book  trash."  And  with  that  I  handed 
her  several  volumes,  and  sank  back  into  my  corner  in  sulky 
isolation. 

Here  was  a  change !  Ten  minutes  ago  all  Nature  smiled 
on  me ;  from  the  lark  in  the  high  heavens  to  the  chirping 
grasshopper  in  the  tall  maize-field,  it  was  one  song  of  joy 
and  gladness.  The  very  clouds  as  they  swept  past  threw 
new  and  varied  light  over  the  scene,  as  though  to  show 
fresh  effects  of  beauty  on  the  landscape,  — the  streams 
went  by  in  circling  eddies,  like  smiles  upon  a  lovely  face, 
—  and  now  all  was  sad  and  crape-covered!  "What  has 
wrought  this  dreary  change?"  thought  I;  "is  it  possible 
that  the  cold  looks  of  a  young  woman,  good-looking,  I 
grant,  but  no  regular  downright  beauty  after  all,  can  have 
altered  the  aspect  of  the  whole  world  to  you  ?  Are  you  so 
poor  a  creature  in  yourself.  Potts,  so  beggared  in  your 
own  resources,  so  barren  in  all  the  appliances  of  thought 
and  reflection,  that  if  your  companion,  whoever  she  or  he 
may  be,  sulk,  j^ou  must  needs  reflect  the  humor?  Are  you 
nothing  but  the  mirror  that  displays  what  is  placed  before 
it?" 

I  set  myself  deliberately  to  scan  the  profile  beside  me; 
her  black  veil,  drawn  down  on  the  side  furthest  from  me, 
formed  a  sort  of  background,  which  displayed  her  pale 
features  more  distinctly.  All  about  the  brow  and  orbit  was 
beautifully  regular,  but  the  mouth  was,  I  fancied,  severe; 
there  was  a  slight  retraction  of  the  upper  lip  that  seemed 
to  imply  over-firmness,  and  then  the  chin  was  deeply  in- 
dented, —  "a  sign,"  Lavater  says,  "  of  those  who  have  a 
will  of  their  own."    ''  Potts,"  thought  I,  "  she  'd  rule  you,  — 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  SECOND  DAY'S  JOURNEY.      195 

that 's  a  nature  would  speedily  master  yours.  I  don't  think 
there 's  any  softness  either,  any  of  that  yielding  gentleness 
there,  that  makes  the  poetry  of  womanhood ;  besides,  I  sus- 
pect she  's  worldly,  —  those  sharply  cut  nostrils  are  very 
worldly !  She  is,  in  fact,"  —  and  here  I  unconsciously 
uttered  my  thoughts  aloud,  —  "she  is,  in  fact,  one  to  say, 
'Potts,  how  much  have  you  got  a-year?  Let  us  have  it  in 
figures.'  " 

"  So  you  are  still  ruminating  over  the  life  of  that  interest- 
ing creature,"  said  she,  laying  down  her  book  to  laugh; 
''and  shall  I  confess,  I  lay  awake  half  the  night,  inventing 
incidents  and  imagining  situations  for  him." 

"  For  whom?  "  said  I,  innocently. 

"  For  Potts,  of  course.  I  cannot  get  him  out  of  my  head 
such  as  I  first  fancied  he  might  be,  and  I  see  now,  by  your 
unconscious  allusion  to  him,  that  he  has  his  place  in  your 
imagination  also." 

"You  mistake.  Miss  Herbert,  —  at  least  you  very  much 
misapprehend  my  conception  of  that  character.  The  Potts 
family  has  a  high  historic  tradition.  Sir  Constantine  Potts 
was  cup-bearer  to  Henry  II.,  and  I  really  see  no  reason  why 
ridicule  should  attach  to  one  who  may  be,  most  probably, 
his  descendant." 

"  I  'm  very  sorry,  sir,  if  I  should  have  dared  to  differ  with 
you  ;  but  when  I  heard  the  name  first,  and  in  connection 
with  two  such  names  as  Algernon  Sydney,  and  when  I 
thought  by  what  strange  accident  did  they  ever  meet  in  the 
one  person  —  " 

"  You  are  very  young.  Miss  Herbert,  and  therefore  not 
removed  from  the  category  of  the  teachable,"  said  I,  with  a 
grand  didactic  look.  "  Let  me  guard  you,  therefore,  against 
the  levity  of  chance  inferences.  What  would  you  say  if  a 
person  named  Potts  were  to  make  the  offer  of  his  hand?  I 
mean,  if  he  were  a  man  in  all  respects  acceptable,  a  gentle- 
man captivating  in  manner  and  address,  agreeable  in  person, 
graceful  and  accomplished,  —  what  would  you  reply  to  his 
advances?" 

' '  Really,  sir,  I  am  shocked  to  think  of  the  humble  opinion 
I  may  be  conveying  of  my  sense  and  judgment,  but  I'm 
afraid  I  should  tell  him  it  is  impossible  I  could  ever  permit 
myself  to  be  called  Mrs.  Potts." 


196  A  DAY'S  EIDE. 

**  But,  in  Heaven's  name,  why?  —  I  ask  you  why?  " 

"Oh,  sh"!  don't  be  angry  with  me;  it  surely  does  not 
deserve  such  a  penalty ;  at  the  worst,  it  is  a  mere  caprice  on 
my  part." 

"  I  am  not  angry,  young  lady,  I  am  simply  provoked ;  I 
am  annoyed  to  think  that  a  prejudice  so  unworthy  of  you 
should  exercise  such  a  control  over  your  judgment." 

"  I  am  quite  ashamed,  sir,  to  have  been  the  occasion  of 
so  much  displeasure  to  you.  I  hope  and  trust  you  will 
ascribe  it  to  my  ignorance  of  life  and  the  world." 

*'  If  you  are  dissatisfied  with  yourself,  Miss  Herbert,  I 
have  no  more  to  say,"  said  I,  taking  up  a  book,  and  pretend- 
ing to  read,  while  I  felt  such  a  disgust  with  myself  that  if  I 
hadn't  been  strapped  up  with  a  leather  apron  up  to  my  chin, 
I  think  I  should  have  thrown  myself  headlong  down  and  let 
the  wheel  pass  over  me.  "  What  is  it.  Potts,  that  is  cor- 
rupting and  destroying  the  naturally  fine  and  noble  nature 
you  are  certainly  endowed  with?  Is  it  this  confounded  ele- 
vation to  princely  rank  ?  If  you  were  not  a  Royal  Highness, 
would  you  have  dared  to  utter  such  cruelties  as  these  ?  Would 
you,  in  your  most  savage  of  moods,  have  presumed  to  make 
that  pale  cheek  paler,  and  forced  a  tear-drop  into  that  liquid 
eye  ?  I  always  used  to  think  that  the  greatest  effort  of  a  man 
was  to  keep  him  on  a  level  with  those  born  above  him.  I 
now  find  it  is  far  harder  to  stoop  than  to  stand  on  tiptoe. 
Such  a  pain  in  the  back  comes  of  always  bending,  and  it  is 
so  difficult  to  do  it  gracefully !  " 

I  was  positively  dying  to  be  what  the  French  call  bon 
prince,  and  yet  I  did  n't  know  how  to  set  about  it.  I 
could  not  take  off  one  of  my  decorations,  —  a  cross  or  a 
ribbon,  —  for  I  had  none ;  nor  give  it,  because  she,  being  a 
woman,  could  n't  wear  it.  I  could  n't  make  her  one  of  the 
court  ladies,  for  there  was  no  court;  and  yet  it  was  clear 
something  should  be  done,  if  one  only  knew  what  it  was.  "  I 
suppose  now,"  said  I  to  myself,  "  a  real  R.  H.  would  see  his 
way  here  at  once  ;  the  right  thing  to  do,  the  exact  expression 
to  use  would  occur  as  naturally  to  his  mind  as  all  this  embar- 
rassment presents  itself  to  mine.  '  Whenever  your  head 
cannot  guide  you,'  says  a  Spanish  proverb,  '  ask  your 
heart;'  and  so  I  did,  and  my  heart  spoke  thus:  'Tell  her, 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  SECOND  DAY'S  JOURNEY.      197 

Potts,  who  you  are,  and  what;  say  to  her,  "Listen,  young 
lady,  to  the  words  of  truth  from  one  who  could  tell  you  far 
more  glibly,  far  more  freely,  and  far  more  willingly,  a  whole 
bushel  of  lies.  It  will  sit  light  on  his  heart  that  he  deceive 
the  old  lady  inside,  but  you  he  cannot,  will  not  deceive.  Do 
not  deem  the  sacrifice  a  light  one ;  it  cost  St.  George  far  less 
to  go  out  dragon-hunting  than  it  costs  me  to  slay  this  small 
monster  who  ever  prompts  me  to  feats  of  fancy." ' " 

"  I  am  very  sorry  to  be  troublesome,  sir,  but  as  we  change 
horses  here,  I  will  ask  you  to  assist  me  to  alight;  the 
weather  looks  very  threatening,  and  some  drops  of  rain 
have  already  fallen." 

These  words  roused  me  from  my  revery  to  action,  and  I 
got  down,  not  very  dexterously  either,  for  I  slipped,  and 
made  the  postilion  laugh,  and  then  I  helped  her,  who  accom- 
plished the  descent  so  neatly,  so  gracefully,  showing  the 
least  portion  of  such  an  ankle,  and  accidentally  giving  me 
such  a  squeeze  of  the  hand !  The  next  moment  she  was 
lost  to  me,  the  clanking  steps  were  drawn  up,  the  harsh  door 
banged  to,  and  I  was  alone,  —  all  alone  in  the  world. 

Like  a  sulky  eagle,  sick  of  the  world,  I  climbed  up  to  my 
eyry.  I  no  longer  wished  for  sunshine  or  scenery ;  nay,  I 
was  glad  to  see  the  postboys  put  on  their  overcoats  and  pre- 
pare for  a  regular  down-pour.  I  liked  to  think  there  are 
some  worse  off  than  even  Potts.  In  half  an  hour  they  will 
be  drenched  to  the  skin,  and  I'll  not  feel  a  drop  of  it! 

The  little  glass  slide  at  my  back  was  now  withdrawn,  and 
Miss  Herbert's  pale,  sweet  face  appeared  at  it.  She  was 
saying  that  Mrs.  Keats  urgently  entreated  I  would  come 
inside,  that  she  was  so  uneasy  at  my  being  exposed  to  such 
a  storm. 

I  refused,  and  was  about  to  enter  into  an  account  of  my 
ascent  of  Mont  Blanc,  when  the  slide  was  closed  and  my 
listener  lost  to  me. 

"Is  it  possible.  Potts,"  said  I,  "  that  she  has  detected 
this  turn  of  yours  for  the  imaginative  line,  and  that  she  will 
not  encourage  it,  even  tacitly  ?  Has  she  said,  '  There  is  a 
young  man  of  genius,  gifted  marvellously  with  the  richest 
qualities,  and  yet  such  is  the  exuberance  of  his  fancy  that 
he  is  positively  its  slave.     Not  content  to  let  him  walk  the 


198  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

earth  like  other  men,  she  attaches  wings  to  him  and  carries 
him  off  into  the  upper  air.  I  will  endeavor,  however  hard 
the  task,  to  clip  his  feathers  and  bring  him  back  to  the  com- 
mon haunts  of  men '  ?     Try  it,  fair  enchantress,  try  it !  " 

The  rain  was  now  coming  down  in  torrents,  and  with  such 
swooping  gusts  of  wind  that  I  was  forced  to  fasten  the 
leather  curtain  in  front  of  me,  and  sit  in  utter  darkness, 
denied  even  the  passing  pleasure  of  seeing  the  drenched 
postboys  bobbing  up  and  down  on  the  wet  saddles.  I  grew 
moody  and  sad.  Every  Blue  Devil  of  my  acquaintance 
came  to  pay  his  visit  to  me,  and  brought  a  few  more  of  his 
private  friends.  I  bethought  me  that  I  was  hourly  travelling 
away  further  and  further  from  my  home ;  that  all  this  long 
road  must  surely  be  retraced  one  day  or  other,  though  not 
in  a  carriage  and  post,  but  probably  in  a  one-horse  cart, 
with  a  mounted  gendarme  on  either  side  of  it,  and  a  string 
to  my  two  wrists  in  their  bridle  hands.  I  thought  of  that 
vulgar  herd  of  mankind  so  ready  to  weep  over  a  romance, 
and  yet  send  the  man  who  acts  one  to  a  penal  settlement.  I 
thought  how  I  should  be  described  as  the  artful  knave,  the 
accomplished  swindler.  As  if  I  was  the  first  man  who  ever 
took  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  his  own  merits !  Go  into 
the  House  of  Commons,  visit  the  National  Gallery,  dine  at 
a  bar  or  a  military  mess,  frequent,  in  one  word,  any  of  the 
haunts  of  men,  and  with  what  pieces  pour  servir  a  Vhistoire 
of  self-deception  will  you  come  back  loaded ! 

The  sliding  window  at  my  back  was  again  drawn  aside, 
and  I  heard  Miss  Herbert's  voice,  — 

"  If  I  am  not  giving  you  too  much  trouble,  sir,  would  you 
kindly  see  if  I  have  not  dropped  a  bracelet  —  a  small  jet 
bracelet  —  in  the  coupe? " 

''  I 'm  in  the  dark  here,  but  I'll  do  my  best  to  find  it." 

''  We  are  very  nearly  so,  too,"  said  she ;  "  and  Mrs.  Keats 
is  fast  asleep,  quite  unmindful  of  the  thunder." 

With  some  struggling  I  managed  to  get  down  on  my  knees, 
and  was  soon  engaged  in  a  very  vigorous  search.  To  aid 
me,  I  lighted  a  lucifer  match,  and  by  its  flickering  glare  I 
saw  right  in  front  of  me  that  beautiful  pale  face,  enclosed 
as  it  were  in  a  frame  by  the  little  window.  She  blushed  at 
the  fixedness  of  my  gaze,  for  I  utterly  forgot  myself  in  my 


INCIDENTS  OF  THE  SECOND  DAY'S  JOURNEY.      199 

admiration,  and  stared  as  though -at  a  picture.  My  match 
went  out,  and  I  lit  another.  Alas !  there  she  was  still,  and 
I  could  not  force  myself  to  turn  away,  but  gazed  on  in 
rapture. 

'*I'm  sorry  to  give  you  this  trouble,  sir,"  said  she,  in 
some  confusion.  "  Pray  never  mind  it.  It  will  doubtless 
be  found  this  evening  when  we  arrive." 

Another  lucifer,  and  now  I  pretended  to  be  in  most  eager 
pursuit ;  but  somehow  my  eyes  would  look  up  and  rest  upon 
her  sweet  countenance. 

"  A  diamond  bracelet,  you  said?"  muttered  I,  not  know- 
ing what  I  was  saying. 

"No,  sir,  mere  jet,  and  of  no  value  whatever,  save  to 
myself.  I  am  really  distressed  at  all  the  inconvenience  I 
have  occasioned  you.  I  entreat  you  to  think  no  more  of 
it." 

My  match  was  out,  and  I  had  not  another.  "  Was  ever 
a  man  robbed  of  such  ecstasy  for  a  mere  pennyworth  of 
stick  and  a  little  sulphur?  O  Fortune!  is  not  this  down- 
right cruelty?  " 

As  I  mumbled  my  complaints,  I  searched  away  with  an 
honest  zeal,  patting  the  cushions  all  over,  and  poking  away 
into  most  inscrutable  pockets  and  recesses,  while  she,  in  a 
most  beseeching  tone,  apologized  for  her  request  and  be- 
sought me  to  forget  it. 

*' Found!  found!"  cried  I,  in  true  delight,  as  I  chanced 
upon  the  treasure  at  my  feet. 

"  Oh,  sir,  you  have  made  me  so  happy,  and  I  am  so  much 
obliged,  and  so  grateful  to  you !  " 

''Not  another  word,  I  beseech  you,"  whispered  I;  "you 
are  actually  turning  my  head  with  ecstasy.  Give  me  your 
hand,  let  me  clasp  it  on  your  arm,  and  I  am  repaid." 

"  Will  you  kindly  pass  it  to  me,  sir,  through  the 
window?"  said  she,  timidly. 

"Ah!"  cried  I,  in  anguish,  "your  gratitude  has  been 
very  fleeting." 

She  muttered  something  I  could  not  catch,  but  I  heard 
the  rustle  of  her  sleeve  against  the  window-frame,  and  dark 
as  it  was,  pitch  dark,  I  knew  her  hand  was  close  to  me. 
Opening  the  braclet,  I  passed  it  round  her  wrist  as  reverently 


200  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

as  though  it  were  the  arm  of  a  Queen  of  Spain,  one  touch  of 
whom  is  high  treason.  I  trembled  so,  that  it  was  some 
seconds  before  I  could  make  the  clasp  meet.  This  done,  I  felt 
she  was  withdrawing  her  hand,  when,  with  something  like 
that  headlong  impulse  by  which  men  set  their  lives  on  one 
chance,  I  seized  the  fingers  in  my  grasp,  and  implanted  two 
rapturous  kisses  on  them.  She  snatched  her  hand  hastily 
away,  closed  the  window  with  a  sharp  bang,  and  I  was  alone 
once  more  in  my  darkness,  but  in  such  a  flutter  of  blissful 
delight  that  even  the  last  reproving  gesture  could  scarcely 
pain  me.  It  mattered  little  to  me  that  day  that  the  light- 
ning felled  a  great  pine  and  threw  it  across  the  road,  that  the 
torrents  were  so  swollen  that  we  only  could  pass  them  with 
crowds  of  peasants  around  the  carriage  with  ropes  and  poles 
to  secure  it,  that  four  oxen  were  harnessed  in  front  of  our 
leaders  to  enable  us  to  meet  the  hurricane,  or  that  the  post- 
boys were  paid  treble  their  usual  fare  for  all  their  perils  to 
life  and  limb.  I  cared  for  none  of  these,  Enough  for  me 
that,  on  this  day,  I  can  say  with  Schiller, 

**  Ich  habe  genossen  das  irdische  Gliick, 
Ich  habe  gelebt  und  geliebt !  " 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

JEALOUSY   UNSUPPORTED    BY   COURAGE. 

We  arrived  at  a  small  inn  on  the  borders  of  the  Titi-see  at 
nightfall ;  and  though  the  rain  continued  to  come  down  un- 
ceasingly, and  huge  masses  of  cloud  hung  half-way  down  the 
mountain,  I  could  see  that  the  spot  was  highly  picturesque 
and  romantic.  Before  I  could  descend  from  my  lofty  emi- 
nence, so  strapped  and  buttoned  and  buckled  up  was  I,  the 
ladies  had  time  to  get  out  and  reach  their  rooms.  When  I 
asked  to  be  shown  mine,  the  landlord,  in  a  very  free-and-easy 
tone,  told  me  that  there  was  nothing  for  me  but  a  double- 
bedded  room,  which  I  must  share  with  another  traveller.  I 
scouted  this  proposition  at  once  with  a  degree  of  force,  and, 
indeed,  of  violence,  that  I  fancied  must  prove  irresistible  ^ 
but  the  stupid  German,  armed  with  native  impassiveness, 
simply  said,  ''Take  it  or  leave  it,  it's  nothing  to  me,"  and 
left  me  to  look  after  his  business.  I  stormed  and  fumed.  I 
asked  the  chambermaid  if  she  knew  who  I  was,  and  sent  for 
the  Hausknecht  to  tell  him  that  all  Europe  should  ring  with 
this  indignity.  I  more  than  hinted  that  the  landlord  had 
sealed  his  own  doom,  and  that  his  miserable  cabaret  had 
seen  its  last  days  of  prosperity. 

I  asked  next,  where  was  the  Jew  pedler  ?  I  felt  certain  he 
was  a  fellow  with  pencil-cases  and  pipe-heads,  who  owned 
the  other  half  of  the  territory.  Could  he  not  be  bought  up  ? 
He  would  surely  sleep  in  the  cow-house,  if  it  were  too  wet  to 
go  up  a  tree ! 

Fran9ois  came  to  inform  me  that  he  was  out  fishing  ;  that 
he  fished  all  day,  and  only  came  home  after  dark ;  his  man 
had  told  him  so  much. 

'* His  man?  Why,  has  he  a  servant?"  asked  I. 


202  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"  He 's  not  exactly  like  a  servant,  sir ;  but  a  sort  of  peas- 
ant with  a  green  jacket  and  a  tall  hat  and  leather  gaiters,  like 
a  Tyrolese." 

"Strolling  actors,  I '11  be  sworn,"  muttered  I ;  ''fellows 
taking  a  week 's  holiday  on  their  way  to  a  new  engagement. 
How  long  have  they  been  here  ?  " 

"Came  on  Monday  last  in  the  diligence,  and  are  to 
remain  till  the  twentieth ;  two  florins  a  day  they  give  for 
everything." 

"  What  nation  are  they  ?  " 

"Germans,  sir,  regular  Germans;  never  a  pipe  out  of 
their  mouths,  master  and  man.  I  learned  all  this  from 
his  servant,  for  they  have  put  up  a  bed  for  me  in  his  room." 

A  sudden  thought  now  struck  me:  "Why  should  not 
Franyois  give  up  his  bed  to  this  stranger,  and  occupy  the 
one  in  my  room  ? "  This  arrangement  would  suit  me 
better,  and  it  ought  to  be  all  the  same  to  Hamlet  or 
Goetz,  or  whatever  he  was.  "  Just  lounge  about  the  door, 
Frangois,"  said  I,  "  till  he  comes  back;  and  when  you  see 
him,  open  the  thing  to  him,  civilly,  of  course;  and  if  a 
crown  piece,  or  even  two,  will  help  the  negotiation,  slip  it 
slyly  into  his  hand.     You  understand?" 

Francois  winked  like  a  man  who  had  corrupted  custom- 
house officers  in  his  time,  and  even  bribed  bigger  func- 
tionaries at  a  pinch. 

"  If  he 's  in  trade,  you  know,  Fran9ois,  just  hint  that  if 
he  sends  in  his  pack  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  the 
ladies  might  possibly  take  a  fancy  to  something." 

Another  wink. 

"And  throw  out  —  vaguely,  of  course,  very  vaguely  — 
that  we  are  swells,  but  in  strict  incog.'' 

A  great  scoundrel  was  Frangois ;  he  was  a  Swiss,  and 
could  cheat  any  one,  and,  like  a  regular  rogue,  never  hap- 
pier than  when  you  gave  him  a  mission  of  deceit  or  du- 
plicity. In  a  word,  when  I  gave  him  his  instructions,  I 
regarded  the  negotiation  as  though  it  were  completed,  and 
now  addressed  myself  to  the  task  of  looking  after  our 
supper,  which,  with  national  obstinacy,  the  landlord  de- 
clared could  not  be  ready  before  nine  o'clock.  As  usual, 
Mrs*  Keats  had  gone  to  bed  immediately  on  arriving ;  but 


JEALOUSY  UNSUPPORTED  BY  COURAGE.  203 

when  sending  me  a  "  good-night "  by  her  maid,  she  added, 
' '  that  whenever  supper  was  served,  Miss  Herbert  would 
come  down." 

We  had  no  sitting-room  save  the  common  room  of  the 
inn,  a  long,  low-ceilinged,  dreary  chamber,  with  a  huge 
green-tile  stove  in  one  corner,  and  down  the  centre  a  great 
oak  table,  which  might  have  served  about  forty  guests.  At 
one  end  of  this  three  covers  were  laid  for  us,  the  napkins 
enclosed  in  bone  circlets,  and  the  salt  in  great  leaden  recep- 
tacles, like  big  ink-bottles;  a  very  ancient  brass  lamp  giving 
its  dim  radiance  over  all.  It  was  wearisome  to  sit  down 
on  the  straight-backed  wooden  chairs,  and  not  less  irksome 
to  walk  on  the  gritty,  sanded  floor,  and  so  I  lounged  in  one 
of  the  windows,  and  watched  the  rain.  As  I  looked,  I  saw 
the  figure  of  a  man  with  a  fishing-basket  and  rod  on 
his  shoulder  approaching  the  house.  I  guessed  at  once  it 
was  our  stranger,  and,  opening  the  window  a  few  inches,  I 
listened  to  hear  the  dialogue  between  him  and  Francois. 
The  window  was  enclosed  in  the  same  porch  as  the  door,  so 
that  I  could  hear  a  good  deal  of  what  passed.  Francois 
accosted  him  familiarly,  questioned  him  as  to  his  sport,  and 
the  size  of  the  fish  he  had  taken.  1  could  not  hear  the  reply, 
but  I  remarked  that  the  stranger  emptied  his  basket,  and 
was  despatching  the  contents  in  different  directions:  some 
were  for  the  cure,  and  some  for  the  postmaster,  some  for 
the  brigadier  of  the  gendarmerie,  and  one  large  trout  for 
the  miller's  daughter. 

"A  good-looking  wench,  I'll  be  sworn,"  said  Francois, 
as  he  heard  the  message  delivered. 

Again  the  stranger  said  something,  and  I  thought,  from 
the  tone,  angrily,  and  Fran9ois  responded ;  and  then  I  saw 
them  walk  apart  for  a  few  seconds,  during  which  Frangois 
seemed  to  have  all  the  talk  to  himself,  —  a  good  omen,  as 
it  appeared  to  me,  of  success,  and  a  sure  warranty  that  the 
treaty  was  signed.  Francois,  however,  did  not  come  to 
report  progress,  and  so  I  closed  the  window  and  sat  down. 

"So  you  have  got  company  to-night,  Master  Ludwig," 
said  the  stranger,  as  he  entered,  followed  by  the  host,  who 
speedily  seemed  to  whisper  that  one  of  the  arrivals  was  then 
before  him.     The  stranger  bowed  stiflly  but  courteously  to 


204  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

me,  which  I  returned  not  less  haughtily;  and  I  now  saw 
that  he  was  a  man  about  thirty-five,  but  much  freckled,  with 
a  light-brown  beard  and  moustache.  On  the  whole,  a  good- 
looking  fellow,  with  a  very  upright  carriage,  and  something 
of  a  cavalry  soldier  in  the  swing  of  his  gait. 

"Would  you  like  it  at  once,  Herr  Graf?  "  said  the  host^ 
obsequiously. 

"Oh,  he  's  a  count,  is  he?  "  said  I,  with  a  sneer  to  my- 
self.    "These  countships  go  a  short  way  with  we." 

"You  had  better  consult  your  other  guests;  /am  ready 
when  they  are,"  said  the  stranger. 

Now,  though  the  speech  was  polite  and  even  considerate, 
I  lost  sight  of  the  courtesy  in  thinking  that  it  implied  we 
were  about  to  sup  in  common,  and  that  the  third  cover  was 
meant  for  him. 

"I  say,  landlord,"  said  I,  "you  don't  intend  to  tell  me 
that  you  have  no  private  sitting-room,  but  that  ladies  of 
condition  must  needs  come  down  and  sup  here  with  "  —  I 
was  going  to  say,  "Heaven  knows  who;  "  but  I  halted,  and 
said  —  "with  the  general  company." 

"That,  or  nothing !  "  was  the  sturdy  response.  "  The  guests 
in  this  house  eat  here,  or  don't  eat  at  all;  eh,  Herr  Graf?  " 

"Well,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  I  can  corroborate 
you,"  said  the  stranger,  laughing;  "though,  you  may  re- 
member, I  have  often  counselled  you  to  make  some  change." 

"That  you  have;  but  I  don't  want  to  be  better  than  my 
father  and  my  grandfather;  and  the  Archduke  Charles 
stopped  here  in  their  time,  and  never  quarrelled  with  his 
treatment. " 

I  told  the  landlord  to  apprise  the  young  lady  whenever 
supper  was  ready,  and  I  walked  to  a  distant  part  of  the 
room  and  sat  down. 

In  about  two  minutes  after,  Miss  Herbert  appeared,  and 
the  supper  was  served  at  once.  I  had  not  met  her  since  the 
incident  of  the  bracelet,  and  I  was  shocked  to  see  how  cold 
she  was  in  her  manner,  and  how  resolute  in  repelling  the 
most  harmless  familiarity  towards  her. 

1  wanted  to  explain  to  her  that  it  was  through  no  fault  of 
mine  we  were  to  have  the  company  of  that  odious  stranger, 
that  it  was  one  of  the  disagreeables  of  these  wayside  hostels. 


JEALOUSY  UNSUPPORTED  BY  COURAGE.  205 

and  to  be  borne  with  patience,  and  that  though  he  was  a 
stage-player,  or  a  sergeant  of  dragoons,  he  was  reasonably 
well-bred  and  quiet.  I  did  contrive  to  mumble  out  some  of 
this  explanation ;  but,  instead  of  attending  to  it,  I  saw  her 
€yes  following  the  stranger,  who  had  just  draped  a  large 
riding-cloak  over  a  clothes-horse  behind  her  chair,  to  serve 
as  a  screen.  Thanks  are  all  very  well,  but  I  'm  by  no 
means  certain  that  gratitude  requires  such  a  sweet  glance  as 
that,  not  to  mention  that  1  saw  the  expression  in  her  eyes 
for  the  first  time. 

I  thought  the  soup  would  choke  me.  I  almost  hoped  it 
might.  Othello  was  a  mild  case  of  jealousy  compared  to 
me,  and  I  felt  that  strangling  would  not  half  glut  my  ven- 
geance. And  how  they  talked !  —  he  complimenting  her  on 
her  accent,  and  she  telling  him  how  her  first  governess  was 
a  Hanoverian  from  Celle,  where  they  are  all  such  purists. 
There  was  nothing  they  did  not  discuss  in  those  detestable 
gutturals,  and  as  glibly  as  if  it  had  been  a  language  meet 
for  human  lips.  1  could  not  eat  a  mouthful,  but  1  drank 
and  watched  them.  The  fellow  was  not  long  in  betraying 
himself:  he  was  soon  deep  in  the  drama.  He  knew  every 
play  of  Schiller  by  heart,  and  quoted  the  Wallenstein,  the 
Robbers,  Don  Carlos,  and  Maria  Stuart  at  will;  so,  too, 
was  he  familiar  with  Goethe  and  Lessing.  He  had  all  the 
swinging  intonation  of  the  boards,  and  declaimed  so  very 
professionally  that,  as  he  concluded  a  passage,  I  cried  out, 
without  knowing  it,  — 

"  Take  that  for  your  benefit,  —  it  *s  the  best  you  have 
given  yet." 

Oh,  Lord,  how  they  laughed!  She  covered  up  her  face 
and  smothered  it;  but  he  lay  back,  and,  holding  the  table 
with  both  hands,  he  positively  shouted  and  screamed  aloud. 
1  would  have  given  ten  years  of  life  for  the  courage  to 
have  thrown  my  glass  of  wine  in  his  face;  but  it  was  no 
use.  Nature  had  been  a  niggard  to  me  in  that  quarter,  and  I 
had  to  sit  and  hear  it,  — exactly  so,  sit  and  hear  it,  — while 
they  made  twenty  attempts  to  recover  their  gravity  and 
behave  like  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  when,  no  sooner 
wrould  they  look  towards  me,  than  off  they  were  again  as 
bad  as  before. 


206  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  revolved  a  dozen  cutting  sarcasms,  all  beginning  with, 
"  Whenever  I  feel  assured  that  you  have  sufficiently  regained 
the  customary  calm  of  good  society ;  "  but  the  dessert  was 
served  ere  I  could  complete  the  sentence,  and  now  they 
were  deep  in  the  lyric  poets,  Uhland,  and  Korner,  and 
Freiligrath,  and  the  rest  of  them.  As  I  listened  to  their 
enthusiasm,  I  wondered  why  people  never  went  into  raptures 
over  a  cold  in  the  head.  But  it  was  not  to  end  here :  there 
was  an  old  harpsichord  in  the  room,  and  this  he  opened  and 
set  to  work  on  in  that  fearful  two-handed  fashion  your 
German  alone  understands.  The  poor  old  crippled  instru- 
ment shook  on  its  three  legs,  while  the  fourth  fell  clean 
off,  and  the  loose  wires  jangled  and  jarred  like  knives  in  a 
tray;  but  he  only  sang  the  louder,  and  her  ecstasies  grew 
all  the  greater  too. 

Heaven  reward  you,  dear  old  Mrs.  Keats,  when  you  sent 
word  down  that  you  could  n't  sleep  a  wink,  and  begging 
them  to  "send  that  noisy  band  something  and  let  them  go 
away ; "  and  then  Miss  Herbert  wished  him  a  sweet  good- 
night, and  he  accompanied  her  to  the  door,  and  then  there 
was  more  good-night,  and  I  believe  I  had  a  short  fit;  but 
when  I  came  to  myself,  he  was  sitting  smoking  his  cigar 
opposite  me. 

"You  are  no  relative,  no  connection  of  the  young  lady  who 
has  just  left  the  room  ?  "  said  he  to  me  with  a  grave  manner, 
so  significant  of  something  under  it  that  I  replied  hastily, 
"None,  —  none  whatever." 

"Was  that  servant  who  spoke  to  me  in  the  porch,  as  I 
came  in  this  evening,  yours  ?  " 

"Yes."  This  I  said  more  boldly,  as  I  suspected  he  was 
coming  to  the  question  Francois  had  opened. 

"He  mentioned  to  me,"  said  he,  slowly,  and  jDufflng  his 
cigar  at  easy  intervals,  "that  you  desire  your  servant  should 
sleep  in  the  same  room  with  you.  I  am  always  happy  to 
meet  the  wishes  of  courteous  fellow-travellers,  and  so  I  have 
ordered  my  servant  to  give  you  his  bed ;  he  will  sleep  up- 
stairs in  what  was  intended  for  you,  Good-nighto"  And 
with  an  insolent  nod  he  lounged  out  of  the  room  and  left 
me. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

MY   CANDOR   AS   AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHER. 

My  reader  is  sufficiently  acquainted  with  me  by  this  time  to 
know  that  there  is  one  quality  in  me  on  which  he  can  always 
count  with  safety,  —  my  candor !  There  may  be  braver  men 
and  more  ingenious  men ;  there  may  be,  I  will  not  dispute 
it,  persons  more  gifted  with  oratorical  powers,  better  lin- 
guists, better  mathematicians,  and  with  higher  acquirements 
in  art ;  but  I  take  my  stand  upon  candor,  and  say,  there 
never  lived  the  man,  ancient  or  modern,  who  presented  a 
more  open  and  undisguised  section  of  himself  than  I  have 
done,  am  doing,  and  hope  to  do  to  the  end.  And  what,  I 
would  ask  you,  is  the  reason  why  we  have  hitherto  made 
so  little  progress  in  that  greatest  of  all  sciences,  —  the 
knowledge  of  human  nature?  Is  it  not  because  we  are 
always  engaged  in  speculating  on  what  goes  on  in  the 
hearts  of  others,  guessing,  as  it  were,  what  people  are  doing 
next  door,  instead  of  honestly  recording  what  takes  place  in 
their  own  house? 

You  think  this  same  candor  is  a  small  quality.  Well, 
show  me  one  thoroughly  honest  autobiography.  Of  all  the 
men  who  have  written  their  own  memoirs,  it  is  fair  to  pre- 
sume that  some  may  have  lacked  personal  courage,  some 
been  deficient  in  truthfulness,  some  forgetful  of  early 
friendships,  and  so  on.  Yet  where  will  you  find  me  one,  I 
only  ask  one,  who  declares,  "I  was  a  coward,  I  never 
could  speak  truth,  I  was  by  nature  ungrateful"? 

Now,  it  would  be  exactly  through  such  confessions  as 
these  our  knowledge  of  humanity  would  be  advanced.  The 
ship  that  makes  her  voyage  without  the  loss  of  a  spar  or  a 
rope,  teaches  little ;  but  there  is  a  whole  world  of  informa- 
tion in  the  log  of  the  vessel  with  a  great  hole  in  her,  all  her 


208  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

masts  carried  away,  the  captain  invariably  drunk,  and  the 
crew  mutinous;  then  we  hear  of  energy  and  daring  and 
ready-wittedness,  marvellous  resource,  and  indomitable  per- 
severance ;  then  we  come  to  estimate  a  variety  of  qualities 
that  are  only  evoked  by  danger.  Just  as  some  gallant 
skipper  might  say,  "I  saw  that  we  could  n't  weather  the 
point,  and  so  I  dropped  anchor  in  thirty  fathoms,  and 
determined  to  trust  all  to  my  cables; "  or,  "I  perceived  that 
we  were  settling  down,  so  I  crowded  all  sail  on,  resolved  to 
beach  her."  In  the  same  spirit  I  would  like  to  read  in  some 
personal  memoir,  "Knowing  that  I  could  not  rely  on  my 
courage;  feeling  that  if  pressed  hard,  I  should  certainly 
have  told  a  lie  —  "  Oh,  if  we  only  could  get  honesty  like 
this!  If  some  great  statesman,  some  grand  foreground 
figure  of  his  age  would  sit  down  to  give  his  trials  as  they 
really  occurred,  we  should  learn  more  of  life  from  one  such 
volume  than  we  glean  from  all  the  mock  memoirs  we  have 
been  reading  for  centuries ! 

It  is  the  special  pleading  of  these  records  that  makes 
them  so  valueless ;  the  writer  always  is  bent  on  making  out 
his  case.  It  is  the  eternal  representation  of  that  spectacle 
said  to  be  so  pleasing  to  the  gods,  —  the  good  man  strug- 
gling with  adversity.  But  what  we  want  to  see  is  the  weak 
man,  the  frail  man,  the  man  who  has  to  fight  adversity 
with  an  old  rusty  musket  and  a  flint  lock,  instead  of  an 
Enfield  rifle,  loading  at  the  breech! 

I  'd  not  give  a  rush  to  see  Blondin  cross  the  Falls  of 
Niagara  on  a  tight-rope ;  but  I  'd  cross  the  Atlantic  to  see, 
say,  the  Lord  Mayor  or  the  Master  of  the  Rolls  try  it. 

Now,  much-respected  reader,  do  not  for  a  moment  sup- 
pose that  I  have,  even  in  my  most  vainglorious  raptures, 
ever  imagined  that  I  was  here  in  these  records  supplying 
the  void  I  have  pointed  out.  Remember  that  I  have  ex- 
pressly told  you  such  confessions,  to  be  valuable,  ought  to 
<;ome  from  a  great  man.  Painful  as  the  avowal  is,  I  am  not 
a  great  mant  Elements  of  greatness  I  have  in  me,  it  is 
true ;  but  there  are  wants,  deficiencies,  small  little  details, 
many  of  them, —  rivets  and  bolts,  as  it  were, —  without  which 
the  machinery  can't  work;  and  I  know  this,  and  I  feel  it. 

This  digression  has  all  grown  out  of  my  unwillingness  to 


MY  CANDOR  AS  AN  AUTOBIOGRAPHER.     209 

mention  what  mention  I  must, —  that  I  passed  my  night  at 
the  little  inn  on  the  table  where  we  supped.  I  had  not 
courage  to  assert  the  right  to  my  bed  in  the  Count's  room; 
and  so  I  wrapped  myself  in  my  cloak,  and  with  my  carpet- 
bag for  a  pillow,  tried  to  sleep.  It  was  no  use;  the  most 
elastic  spring-mattress  and  a  down  cushion  would  have 
failed  that  night  to  lull  me !  I  was  outraged  beyond  endur- 
ance: she  had  slighted,  he  had  insulted  me!  Such  a 
provocation  as  he  gave  me  could  have  but  one  expiation. 
He  could  not,  by  any  pretext,  refuse  me  satisfaction.  But 
was  I  as  ready  to  ask  it?  Was  it  so  very  certain  that  I 
would  insist  upon  this  reparation?  He  was  certain  to 
wound,  he  might  kill  me!  I  believe  I  cried  over  that 
thought.  To  be  cut  off  in  the  bud  of  one's  youth,  in  the  very 
spring-time  of  one's  enjoyment,  — I  could  not  say  of  one's 
utility,  —  to  go  down  unnoticed  to  the  grave,  never  appre- 
ciated, never  understood,  with  vulgar  and  mistaken  judg- 
ments upon  one's  character  and  motives!  I  thought  my 
heart  would  burst  with  the  affliction  of  such  a  picture,  and 
I  said,  "  No,  Potts,  live ;  and  reply  to  such  would-be  slan- 
derers by  the  exercise  of  the  qualities  of  your  great  nature." 
Numberless  beautiful  little  episodes  came  thronging  to  my 
memory  of  good  men,  men  whose  personal  gallantry  had 
won  them  a  world-wide  renown,  refusing  to  fight  a  duel. 
"We  are  to  storm  the  citadel  to-morrow.  Colonel,"  said  one; 
*'let  us  see  which  of  us  will  be  first  up  the  breach."  How 
I  loved  that  fellow  for  his  speech ;  and  I  tortured  my  mind 
how,  as  there  was  no  citadel  to  be  carried  by  assault,  I 
could  apply  its  wisdom  to  my  own  case.  What  if  I  were 
to  say,  "Count,  the  world  is  before  us, — a  world  full  of 
trials  and  troubles.  With  the  common  fortune  of  humanity, 
we  are  certain  each  of  us  to  have  our  share.  What  if  we 
meet  on  this  spot,  say  ten  years  hence,  and  see  who  has 
best  acquitted  himself  in  the  conflict?  "  I  wonder  what  he 
would  say.  The  Germans  are  a  strange,  imaginative, 
dreamy  sort  of  folk.  Is  it  not  likely  that  he  would  be 
struck  by  a  notion  so  undeniably  original?  Is  it  not  prob- 
able that  he  would  seize  my  hand  with  rapture,  and  say, 
*'Ja!  I  agree  "?  Still,  it  is  possible  that  he  might  not;  he 
might  be  one  of  those  vulgar  matter-of-fact  creatures  who 

14 


210  A  DAY'S  EIDE. 

will  regard  nothing  through  the  tinted  glass  of  fancy;  he 
might  ridicule  the  project,  and  tell  it  at  breakfast  as  a  joke. 
I  felt  almost  smothered  as  this  notion  crossed  me. 

I  next  bethought  me  of  the  privileges  of  my  rank.  Could 
I,  as  an  R.  H.,  accept  the  vulgar  hazards  of  a  personal 
encounter?  Would  not  such  conduct  be  derogatory  in  one 
to  whom  great  destinies  might  one  day  be  committed  ?  Not 
that  1  lent  myself,  be  it  remarked,  to  the  delusion  of  being 
a  prince ;  but  that  I  felt,  if  the  line  of  conduct  would  be 
objectionable  to  men  in  my  rank  and  condition,  it  inevi- 
tably followed  that  it  must  be  bad.  What  I  could  neither 
do  as  the  descendant  of  St.  Louis,  or  the  son  of  Peter  Potts, 
must  needs  be  wrong.  These  were  the  grievous  meditations 
of  that  long,  long  night;  and  though  I  arose  from  the 
hard  table,  weary  and  with  aching  bones,  I  blessed  the 
pinkish-gray  light  that  ushered  in  the  day.  I  had  scarcely 
completed  a  very  rapid  toilet,  when  Francois  came  with  a 
message  from  Mrs.  Keats,  "hoping  I  had  rested  well,  and 
begging  to  know  at  what  hour  it  was  my  pleasure  to  con- 
tinue the  journey."  There  was  an  evident  astonishment  in 
the  fellow's  face  at  the  embassy  with  which  he  was  charged^ 
and  though  he  delivered  the  message  with  reasonable  pro- 
priety, there  was  a  certain  something  in  his  look  that  said, 
"What  delusion  is  this  you  have  thrown  around  the  old 
lady?" 

"Say  that  I  am  ready,  Francois;  that  I  am  even  impa- 
tient to  be  off,  and  the  sooner  we  start  the  better." 

This  I  uttered  with  all  my  heart;  for  I  was  eager  to  get 
away  before  the  odious  German  should  be  stii'ring,  and 
could  not  subdue  my  anxiety  to  avoid  meeting  him  again. 
There  was  every  reason  to  expect  that  we  should  get  off 
unnoticed,  and  I  hastened  out  myself  to  order  the  horses 
and  stimulate  the  postilions  to  greater  activity.  This  was 
no  labor  of  love,  I  promise  you!  The  sluggardly  inertness 
of  that  people  passes  all  belief;  entreaties,  objurgations, 
curses,  even  bribes  could  not  move  them.  They  never  ad- 
mitted such  a  possibility  as  haste,  and  stumped  about  in 
their  wooden  shoes  or  iron-bound  boots,  searching  for  arti- 
cles of  horse-gear  under  bundles  of  hay  or  stacks  of  fire- 
wood, as  though  it  was  the  very  first  time  in  their  lives  that 


MY  CANDOR  AS  AN  AUTOBIOGRAPHER.     211 

post-horses  bad  ever  been  required  in  that  locality.  "Make 
a  great  people  out  of  such  materials  as  these!  "  muttered  I; 
"what  rubbish  to  imagine  it!  How,  with  such  intolerable 
apathy,  are  they  to  be  moved  ?  Where  everything  proceeds 
at  the  same  regulated  slowness,  how  can  justice  ever  over- 
take crime?  When  can  truth  come  up  with  falsehood? 
Whichever  starts  first  here,  must  inevitably  win."  To  urge 
the  creatures  on  by  example,  I  assisted  with  my  own  hands 
to  put  on  the  harness ;  not,  I  will  own,  with  much  advantage 
to  speed,  for  I  put  the  collar  on  upside  down,  and,  in  re- 
venge for  the  indignity,  the  beast  planted  one  of  his  feet 
upon  me,  and  almost  drove  the  cock  of  his  shoe  through  my 
instep.  Almost  mad  with  pain  and  passion,  I  limped  away 
into  the  garden,  and  sat  down  in  a  damp  summer-house. 
A  sleepless  night,  a  lazy  ostler,  and  a  bruised  foot  are, 
after  all,  not  stunning  calamities;  but  there  are  moments 
when  our  jarred  nerves  jangle  at  the  slightest  touch,  and 
even  the  most  trivial  inconveniences  grow  to  the  size  of 
afflictions. 

"We  began  to  fear  you  were  lost,  sir,"  said  Francois, 
breaking  in  upon  my  gloomy  revery  I  cannot  say  how  long 
after.  "The  horses  have  been  at  the  door  this  half- hour, 
and  all  the  house  searching  after  you." 

I  did  not  deign  a  reply,  but  followed  him,  as  he  led  me 
by  a  short  path  to  the  house.  Mrs.  Keats  and  Miss  Herbert 
had  taken  their  places  inside  the  carriage,  and,  to  my  inef- 
fable disgust,  there  was  the  German  chatting  with  them  at 
the  door,  and  actually  presenting  a  bouquet  the  landlord  had 
just  culled  for  her.  Unable  to  confront  the  fellow  with 
that  contemptuous  indifference  which  I  knew  with  a  little 
time  and  preparation  I  could  summon  to  my  aid,  I  scaled 
up  to  my  leathern  attic  and  let  down  the  blinds. 

"Do  you  mean,"  said  I,  through  a  small  slit  in  my  cur- 
tain, —  "do  you  mean  to  sit  smoking  there  all  day?  Will 
you  never  drive  on  ?  "  And  now,  with  a  crash  of  bolts  and 
a  jarring  of  cordage,  like  what  announced  the  launch  of  a 
small  ship,  the  heavy  conveniency  lurched,  surged,  and, 
after  two  or  three  convulsive  bounds,  lumbered  along,  and 
we  started  on  our  day's  journey.  As  we  bumped  along,  I 
remembered  that  I  had   never  wished  the  ladies  a  "good- 


212  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

morning,"  nor  addressed  them  in  any  way;  so  completely 
had  my  selfish  preoccupation  immersed  me  in  my  own 
annoyances,  that  I  actually  forgot  the  commonest  attentions 
of  every-day  life.  I  was  pained  by  this  rudeness  on 
my  part,  and  waited  with  impatience  for  our  first  change  of 
horses  to  repair  my  omission.  Before,  however,  we  had 
gone  a  couple  of  miles,  the  little  window  at  my  back  was 
opened,  and  I  heard  the  old  lady's  voice,  asking  if  I  had 
ever  chanced  upon  a  more  comfortable  country  inn  or  with 
better  beds. 

"Not  bad,  — not  bad,"  said  I,  peevishly.  ''I  had  such  a 
mass  of  letters  to  write  that  I  got  little  sleep.  In  fact,  I 
scarcely  could  say  I  took  any  rest." 

While  the  old  lady  expressed  her  regretful  condolences  at 
this,  I  saw  that  Miss  Herbert  pinched  her  lips  together  as 
if  to  avoid  a  laugh,  and  the  bitter  thought  crossed  me,  "She 
knows  it  all !  " 

"I  am  easily  put  out,  besides,"  said  I.  "That  is,  at  cer- 
tain times  I  am  easily  irritated,  and  a  vulgar  German  fel- 
low who  supped  with  us  last  night  so  ruflfled  my  temper  that 
I  assure  you  he  continued  to  go  through  my  head  till 
morning." 

"Oh,  don't  call  him  vulgar!  "  broke  in  Miss  Herbert; 
"surely  there  could  be  nothing  more  quiet  or  unpretending 
than  his  manners." 

"If  I  were  to  hunt  for  an  epithet  for  a  month,"  retorted  I, 
"a  more  suitable  one  would  never  occur  to  me.  The  fellow 
was  evidently  an  actor  of  some  kind,  —  perhaps  a  rope- 
dancer." 

She  burst  in  with  an  exclamation ;  but  at  the  same  time 
Mrs.  Keats  interposed,  and  though  her  words  were  perfectly 
inaudible  to  me,  I  had  no  difficulty  in  gathering  their  im- 
port, and  saw  that  "the  young  person"  was  undergoing  a 
pretty  smart  lecture  for  her  presumption  in  daring  to  differ 
in  opinion  with  my  Royal  Highness.  I  suppose  it  was 
very  ignoble  of  me,  but  I  was  delighted  at  it.  I  was  right 
glad  that  the  old  woman  administered  that  sharp  castigation, 
and  I  burned  even  with  impatience  to  throw  in  a  shell  myself 
and  increase  the  discomfiture.  Mrs.  Keats  finished  her 
gallop  at  last,  and  I  took  up  the  running. 


MY  CANDOR  AS  AN  AUTOBIOGRAPHER.     213 

"You  were  fortunate,  madam,"  said  I,  "in  the  indispo- 
sition that  confined  you  to  your  room,  and  which  rescued 
you  from  the  underbred  presumption  of  this  man's  man- 
ners. I  have  travelled  much,  I  have  mixed  largely,  I  may 
say,  with  every  rank  and  condition,  and  in  every  country  of 
Europe,  so  that  I  am  not  pronouncing  the  opinion  of  one 
totally  inadequate  to  form  a  judgment  —  " 

"Certainly  not,  sir.  Listen  to  that,  young  lady,"  mut- 
tered she,  in  a  sort  of  under  growl. 

"In  fact,"  resumed  I,  "it  is  one  of  my  especial  amuse- 
ments to  observe  and  note  the  forms  of  civilization  implied 
by  mere  conventional  habits.  If,  from  circumstances  not 
necessary  to  particularize,  certain  advantages  have  favored 
this  pursuit  —  " 

When  I  had  reached  thus  far  in  my  very  pompous  preface, 
the  clatter  of  a  horse  coming  up  at  full  speed  arrested  my 
attention,  and  at  the  very  moment  the  German  himself,  the 
identical  subject  of  our  talk,  dashed  up  to  the  carriage  win- 
dow, and  with  a  few  polite  words  handed  in  a  small  volume 
to  Miss  Herbert,  which  it  seems  he  had  promised  to  give 
her,  but  could  not  accomplish  before,  in  consequence  of  the 
abrupt  haste  of  our  departure.  The  explanation  did  not 
occupy  an  entire  minute,  and  he  was  gone  and  out  of  sight 
at  once.  And  now  the  little  window  was  closed,  and  I  could 
distinctly  hear  that  Mrs.  Keats  was  engaged  in  one  of 
those  salutary  exercises  by  which  age  communicates  its 
experiences  to  youth.  I  wished  I  could  have  opened  a  little 
chink  to  listen  to  it,  but  I  could  not  do  so  undetected,  so  I 
had  to  console  myself  by  imagining  all  the  shrewd  and 
disagreeable  remarks  she  must  have  made.  Morals  has  its 
rhubarb  as  well  as  medicine,  wholesome,  doubtless,  when 
down,  but  marvellously  nauseous  and  very  hard  to  swallow, 
and  I  felt  that  the  young  person  was  getting  a  full  dose; 
indeed,  I  could  catch  two  very  significant  words,  which  came 
and  came  again  in  the  allocution,  and  the  very  utterance 
of  which  added  to  their  sharpness, —  "levity,"  "encourage- 
ment. "     There  they  were  again ! 

"Lay  it  on,  old  lady,"  muttered  I;  "your  precepts  are 
sound ;  never  was  there  a  case  more  meet  for  their  applica- 
tion.    Never  mind  a  little  pain,  either,  —  one  must  touch 


214  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

the  quick  to  make  the  cautery  effectual.  She  will  be  all  the 
belter  for  the  lesson,  and  she  has  well  earned  it !  " 
,  Oh,  Potts!  Potts!  was  this  not  very  hard-hearted  and 
ungenerous  ?  Why  should  the  sorrow  of  that  young  creature 
have  been  a  pleasure  to  you?  Is  it  possible  that  the  mean 
sentiment  of  revenge  has  had  any  share  in  this  ?  Are  you 
angry  with  her  that  she  liked  that  man's  conversation,  and 
turned  to  him  in  preference  to  you  ?  You  surely  cannot  be 
actuated  by  a  motive  so  base  as  this?  Is  it  for  herself,  for 
her  own  advantage,  her  preservation,  that  you  are  thinking 
all  this  time?  Of  course  it  is.  And  there,  now,  I  think  I 
hear  her  sob.  Yes,  she  is  crying ;  the  old  lady  has  really 
come  to  the  quick,  and  I  believe  is  not  going  to  stop  there. 

"Well,"  thought  I,  "old  ladies  are  an  excellent  invention; 
none  of  these  cutting  severities  could  be  done  but  for  them. 
And  they  have  a  patient  persistence  in  this  surgery  quite 
wonderful,  for  when  they  have  flayed  the  patient  all  over, 
they  sprinkle  on  salt  as  carefully  as  a  pastry-cook  frosting 
a  plum-cake." 

At  last,  I  did  begin  to  wish  it  was  over.  She  surely  must 
have  addressed  herself  to  every  phase  of  the  question  in  an 
hour  and  a  half;  and  yet  I  could  hear  her  still  grinding, 
grinding  on,  as  though  the  eflScacy  of  her  precepts,  like  a 
homoeopathic  remedy,  were  to  be  increased  by  trituration. 
Fortunately,  we  had  to  halt  for  fresh  horses ;  and  so  I  got 
down  to  chat  with  them  at  the  carriage-door,  and  interrupt 
the  lecture.  Little  was  I  prepared  for  the  reddened  eyes  and 
quivering  lips  of  that  poor  girl,  as  she  drank  off  the  glass  of 
water  she  begged  me  to  fetch  her,  but  still  less  for  the  few 
words  she  contrived  to  whisper  in  my  ear  as  1  took  the  glass 
from  her  hands. 

"I  hope  you  have  made  me  miserable  enough  now,^^ 

And  with  this  the  window  was  banged  to,  and  away  we 
went. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

I   MAINTAIN   A   DIGNIFIED   RESERVE. 

I  WAS  SO  hurt  by  the  last  words  of  Miss  Herbert  to  me,  that 
I  maintained  throughout  the  entire  day  what  I  meant  to  be  a 
"dignified  reserve,"  but  what  I  half  suspect  bore  stronger 
resemblance  to  a  deep  sulk.  My  station  had  its  priv- 
ileges, and  I  resolved  to  take  the  benefit  of  them.  I  dined 
alone.  Yes,  on  that  day  I  did  fall  back  upon  the  eminence 
of  my  condition,  and  proudly  intimated  that  I  desired  soli- 
tude. I  was  delighted  to  see  the  dismay  this  declaration 
caused.  Old  Mrs.  Keats  was  speechless  with  terror.  I  was 
looking  at  her  through  a  chink  in  the  door  when  Miss  Her- 
bert gave  my  message,  and  I  thought  she  would  have  fainted. 

''What  were  his  precise  words?  Give  them  to  me  ex- 
actly as  he  uttered  them,"  said  she,  tremulously,  '*  for  there 
are  persons  whose  intimations  are  half  commands." 

"  I  can  scarcely  repeat  them,  madam,"  said  the  other, 
*'  but  their  purport  was,  that  we  were  not  to  expect  him  at 
dinner,  that  he  had  ordered  it  to  be  served  in  his  own  room 
and  at  his  own  hour." 

''And  this  is  very  probably  all  your  doing,"  said  the  old 
lady,  with  indignation.  "  Unaccustomed  to  any  levity  of 
behavior,  brought  up  in  a  rank  where  familiarities  are  never 
practised,  he  has  been  shocked  by  your  conduct  with  that 
stranger.  Yes,  Miss  Herbert,  I  say  shocked,  because,  how- 
ever harmless  in  intention,  such  freedoms  are  utterly  un- 
known in  —  in  certain  circles." 

"  I  am  sure,  madam,"  replied  she,  with  a  certain  amount 
of  spirit,  "  that  you  are  laboring  under  a  very  grave  mis- 
apprehension. There  was  no  familiarity,  no  freedom.  We 
talked  as  I  imagine  people  usually  talk  when  they  sit  at  the 
same  table.     Mr.  —  I  scarcely  know  his  name  —  " 


216  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

*'Nor  is  it  necessary,"  said  the  old  woman,  tartly; 
*'  though,  if  you  had,  probably  this  unfortunate  incident 
might  not  have  occurred.  Sit  down  there,  however,  and 
write  a  few  lines  in  my  name,  hoping  that  his  indisposition 
may  be  very  slight,  and  begging  to  know  if  he  desire  to 
remain  here  to-morrow  and  take  some  repose." 

I  waited  till  I  saw  Miss  Herbert  open  her  writing-desk, 
and  then  I  hastened  off  to  my  room  to  reflect  over  my  answer 
to  her  note.  Now  that  the  suggestion  was  made  to  me,  I 
was  pleased  with  the  notion  of  passing  an  entire  day  where 
we  were.  The  place  was  Schaffhausen,  —  the  famous  fall  of 
the  Rhine,  —  not  very  much  as  a  cataract,  but  picturesque 
withal ;  pleasant  chestnut  woods  to  ramble  about,  and  a  nice 
old  inn  in  a  wild  old  wilderness  of  a  garden  that  sloped  down 
to  the  very  river. 

Strange  perversity  is  it  not ;  but  how  naturally  one  likes 
everything  to  have  some  feature  or  other  out  of  keeping 
with  its  intrinsic  purport!  An  inn  like  an  old  chdteau^  a 
chief-justice  that  could  ride  a  steeple-chase,  a  bishop  that 
sings  Moore's  melodies,  have  an  immense  attraction  for  me. 
They  seem  all,  as  it  were,  to  say,  "Don't  fancy  life  is  a 
mere  four-roomed  house  with  a  door  in  the  middle.  Don't 
imagine  that  all  is  humdrum  and  routine  and  regular.  Not- 
withstanding his  wig  and  stern  black  eyebrows,  there  is  a 
touch  of  romance  in  that  old  Chancellor's  heart  that  you 
could  n't  beat  out  of  it  with  his  great  mace ;  and  his  Grace 
the  Primate  there  has  not  forgotten  what  made  the  poetry 
of  his  life  in  days  before  he  ever  dreamed  of  charges  or 
triennial  visitations." 

By  these  reflections  I  mean  to  convey  that  I  am  very 
fond  of  an  inn  that  does  not  look  like  an  inn,  but  resembles 
a  faded  old  country-house,  or  a  deserted  convent,  or  a  dis- 
abled mill.  This  Schaffhausen  Gasthaus  looked  like  all 
three.  It  was  the  sort  of  place  one  might  come  to  in  a 
long  vacation,  to  live  simply  and  to  go  early  to  bed,  take 
monotony  as  a  tonic,  and  fancying  unbroken  quiet  to  be 
better  than  quinine. 

"  Ah !  "  thought  I,  "if  it  had  not  been  for  that  confounded 
German,  what  a  paradise  might  not  this  have  been  to  me ! 
Down  there  in  that  garden,  with  the  din  of  the  waterfall 


I  MAINTAIN  A  DIGNIFIED  RESERVE.  217 

around  us,  walking  under  the  old  cherry-trees,  brushing  our 
way  through  tangled  sweetbriers,  and  arbutus,  and  laburnum, 
what  delicious  nonsense  might  I  not  have  poured  into  her 
ear !  Ay !  and  not  unwillingly  had  she  heard  it.  That 
something  within  that  never  deceives,  that  little  crimson 
heart  within  the  rose  of  conscience,  tells  me  that  she  liked  me, 
that  she  was  attracted  by  what,  if  it  were  not  for  shame,  I 
would  call  the  irresistible  attractions  of  my  nature ;  and  now 
this  creature  of  braten  and  beetroot  has  spoiled  all,  jarred  the 
instrument  and  unstrung  the  chords  that  might  have  yielded 
me  such  sweet  music." 

In  thinking  over  the  inadequacy  of  all  human  institutions, 
I  have  often  been  struck  by  the  fact  that  while  the  law  gives 
the  weak  man  a  certain  measure  of  protection  against  the 
superior  physical  strength  of  the  powerful  ruffian  in  the 
street,  it  affords  none  against  the  assaults  of  the  intellectual 
bully  at  a  dinner-party.  He  may  maltreat  you  at  his  pleas- 
ure, batter  you  with  his  arguments,  kick  you  with  infer- 
ences, and  knock  you  down  with  conclusions,  and  no  help 
for  it  all! 

''  Ah,  here  comes  Fran9ois  with  the  note."  I  wrote  one 
line  in  pencil  for  answer:  ''I  am  sensibly  touched  by  your 
consideration,  and  will  pass  to-morrow  here."  I  signed  this 
with  a  P.,  which  might  mean  Prince,  Potts,  or  Pottinger. 
My  reply  despatched,  I  began  to  think  how  I  could  improve 
the  opportunity.  "I  will  bring  her  to  book,"  thought  I; 
"I  will  have  an  explanation."  I  always  loved  that  sort  of 
thing,  —  there  is  an  almost  certainty  of  emotion  ;  now  emo- 
tion begets  tears ;  tears,  tenderness ;  tenderness,  consola- 
tion ;  and  when  you  reach  consolation,  you  are,  so  to  say,  a 
tenant  in  possession ;  your  title  may  be  disputable,  your 
lease  invalid,  still  you  are  there,  on  the  property,  and  it  will 
take  time  at  least  to  turn  you  out.  ''  After  all,"  thought  I, 
"  that  rude  German  has  but  troubled  the  water  for  a  moment, 
the  pure  well  of  her  affections  will  by  this  time  have  regained 
its  calm  still  surface,  and  I  shall  see  my  image  there  as 
before." 

My  meditations  were  interrupted,  perhaps  not  unpleas- 
antly. It  was  the  waiter  with  my  dinner.  I  am  not  un- 
social —  I  am  eminently  the  reverse  —  I  may  say,  like  most 


218  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"men  who  feel  themselves  conversationally  gifted,  I  like  com- 
pany, I  see  that  my  gifts  have  in  such  gatherings  their  natu- 
ral ascendancy,  —  and  yet,  with  all  this,  I  have  always  felt 
that  to  dine  splendidly,  all  alone,  was  a  very  grand  thing. 
Mind,  I  don't  say  it  is  pleasant  or  jolly  or  social,  but 
simply  that  it  is  grand  to  see  all  that  table  equipage  of 
crystal  and  silver  spread  out  for  you  alone ;  to  know  that  the 
business  of  that  gorgeous  candelabrum  is  to  light  you  ;  that 
the  two  decorous  men  in  black  —  archdeacons  they  might  be, 
from  the  quiet  dignity  of  their  manners  —  are  there  to  wait 
upon  you  ;  that  the  whole  sacrifice,  from  the  caviare  to  the 
oheese,  was  a  hecatomb  to  your  greatness.  1  repeat,  these 
are  all  grand  and  imposing  considerations,  and  there  have 
been  times  when  I  have  enjoyed  these  Lucullas  cum  Lucullo 
festivals  more  than  convivial  assemblages.  This  day  was 
one  of  these :  I  lingered  over  my  dinner  in  delightful  dalli- 
ance. I  partook  of  nearly  every  dish,  but,  with  a  supreme 
refinement,  ate  little  of  any,  as  though  to  imply,  "I  am 
accustomed  to  a  very  diff'erent  cuisiue  from  this ;  it  is  not 
thus  that  I  fare  habitually."  And  yet  I  was  blandly  for- 
giving, accepting  even  such  humble  efforts  to  please  as  if 
they  had  been  successes.  The  Cliquot  was  good,  and  I 
drank  no  other  wine,  though  various  flasks  with  tempting 
titles  stood  around  me. 

Dinner  over  and  coffee  served,  I  asked  the  waiter  what 
resources  the  place  possessed  in  the  way  of  amusement.  He 
looked  blank  and  even  distressed  at  my  question :  he  had  all 
his  life  imagined  that  the  Falls  sufficed  for  everything ;  he 
had  seen  the  tide  of  travel  halt  there  to  view  them  for  years. 
Since  he  was  a  boy,  he  had  never  ceased  to  witness  the 
yearly  recurring  round  of  tourists  who  came  to  see,  and 
sketch,  and  scribble  about  them,  and  so  he  faintly  muttered 
out  a  remonstrance,  — 

"  Monsieur  has  not  yet  visited  the  Falls." 

'*  The  Falls !  why,  I  see  them  from  this,  and  if  I  open  the 
window  I  am  stunned  with  their  uproar." 

I  was  really  sorry  at  the  pain  my  hasty  speech  gave  him, 
for  he  looked  suddenly  faint  and  ill,  and  after  a  moment 
gasped  out,  — 

*'  But  monsieur  is  surely  not  going  away  without  a  visit  to 


I  MAINTAIN  A  DIGNIFIED  RESERVP:.  219 

the  cataract?  The  guide-books  give  two  hours  as  the  very 
shortest  time  to  see  it  effectually." 

"I  only  gave  ten  minutes  to  Niagara,  my  good  friend,'* 
said  I,  "  and  would  not  have  spared  even  that,  but  that  I 
wanted  to  hold  a  sprained  ankle  under  the  fall.'* 

He  staggered,  and  had  to  hold  a  chair  to  support  himself. 

''  There  is,  besides,  the  Laufen  Schloss  —  *' 

*'  As  to  castles,"  broke  I  in,  ''I  have  no  need  to  leave  my 
own  to  see  all  that  mediaeval  architecture  can  boast.  No, 
no,"  sighed  I  out,  "  if  I  am  to  have  new  sensations,  they 
must  come  through  some  other  channel  than  sight.  Have 
you  no  theatre?" 

"  No,  sir.     None.** 

"  No  concert-rooms,  no  music-garden?" 

*'None,  sir." 

"  Not  even  a  circus?  *'  said  I,  peevishly. 

"  There  was,  sir,  but  it  was  not  attended.  The  strangers 
all  come  to  see  the  Falls.** 

''  Confound  the  Falls  !    And  what  became  of  the  circus?  ** 

*'  Well,  they  made  a  bad  business  of  it;  got  into  debt  on 
all  sides,  for  oil,  and  forage,  and  printing  placards,  and  so 
on,  and  then  they  beat  a  sudden  retreat  one  night,  and  slipped 
off,  all  but  two,  and,  indeed,  they  were  about  the  best  of  the 
company ;  but  somehow  they  lost  their  way  in  the  forest, 
and  instead  of  coming  up  with  their  companions,  found  them- 
selves at  daybreak  at  the  outside  of  the  town." 

''  And  these  two  unlucky  ones,  what  were  they?  " 

"  One  was  the  chief  clown,  sir,  a  German,  and  the  other 
was  a  little  girl,  a  Moor  they  call  her;  but  the  cleverest 
creature  to  ride  or  throw  somersaults  through  hoops  of  the 
whole  of  them." 

"  And  how  do  they  live  now?  ** 

"Very  hardly,  I  believe,  sir;  and  but  for  Tintefleck, — 
that*s  what  they  call  her, — they  might  starve;  but  she 
goes  about  with  her  guitar  through  the  cafes  of  an  evening, 
and  as  she  has  a  sweet  voice,  she  picks  up  a  few  batzen. 
But  the  maire,  I  hear,  won't  permit  this  any  longer,  and 
says  that  as  they  have  no  passport  or  papers  of  any  kind, 
they  must  be  sent  over  the  frontier  as  vagabonds.*' 

"  Let  that  maire  be  brought  before  me,**  said  I,  with  a 


220  ^  DAY'S  RIDE. 

haughty  indignation.  "Let  me  tell  him  in  a  few  brief 
words  what  1  think  of  his  heartless  cruelty  —  But  no,  I 
was  forgetting,  —  I  am  here  incog.  Be  careful,  my  good 
man,  that  you  do  not  mention  what  I  have  so  inadvertently 
dropped ;  remember  that  I  am  nobody  here ;  I  am  Number 
Five  and  nothing  more.  Send  the  unfortunate  creatures, 
however,  here,  and  let  me  interrogate  them.  They  can  be 
easily  found,  I  suppose?" 

"  In  a  moment,  sir.  They  were  in  the  Platz  just  when  I 
served  the  pheasant." 

*'  What  name  does  the  man  bear?  " 

"I  never  heard  a  name  for  him.  Amongst  the  company 
he  was  called  Vaterchen,  as  he  was  the  oldest  of  them  all ; 
and,  indeed,  they  seemed  all  very  fond  of  him." 

*' Let  Vaterchen  and  Tintefleck,  then,  come  hither.  And 
bring  fresh  glasses,  waiter." 

And  I  spoke  as  might  an  Eastern  despot  giving  his  orders 
for  a  "nautch;  "  and  then,  waving  my  hand,  motioned  the 
messenger  away. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

VATERCHEN    AND    TINTEFLECK. 

Had  Fortune  decreed  that  I  should  be  rich,  I  believe  I  would 
have  been  the  most  popular  of  men.  There  is  such  a  natural 
kindness  of  disposition  in  me,  blended  with  the  most  refined 
sense  of  discrimination.  I  love  humanity  in  the  aggregate, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  with  a  rare  delicacy  of  sentiment,  I 
can  follow  through  all  the  tortuous  windings  of  the  heart, 
and  actually  sympathize  in  emotions  that  I  never  experienced. 
No  rank  is  too  exalted,  no  lot  too  humble,  for  the  exercise 
of  my  benevolence.  I  have  sat  in  my  arm-chair  with  a  beat- 
ing, throbbing  heart,  as  I  imagined  the  troubles  of  a  king, 
and  I  have  drunk  my  Bordeaux  with  tears  of  gratitude  as  I 
fancied  myself  a  peasant  with  only  water  to  slake  his  thirst. 
To  a  man  of  highly  organized  temperament,  the  privations 
themselves  are  not  necessary  to  eliminate  the  feeling  they 
would  suggest.  Coarser  natures  would  require  starvation  to 
produce  the  sense  of  hunger,  nakedness  to  cause  that  of  cold, 
and  so  on ;  the  gifted  can  be  in  rags,  while  enclosed  in  a 
wadded  dressing-gown  ;  they  can  go  supperless  to  bed  after 
a  meal  of  oysters  and  toasted  cheese ;  they  can,  if  they  will, 
be  fatally  wounded  as  they  sit  over  their  wine,  or  cast 
away  after  shipwreck  with  their  feet  on  the  fender.  Great 
privileges  all  these;  happy  is  he  who  has  them,  happy 
are  they  amidst  whom  he  tries  to  spread  the  blessings  of  his 
inheritance ! 

Amid  the  many  admirable  traits  which  I  recognize  in  my- 
self, —  and  of  which  I  speak  not  boastfully,  but  gratefully, 
being  accidents  of  my  nature  as  far  removed  from  my  own 
agency  as  the  color  of  my  eyes  or  the  shape  of  my  nose,  — 
of  these,  I  say,  I  know  of  none  more  striking  than  such  as 


222  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

fit  me  to  be  a  patron.  I  am  graceful  as  a  lover,  touching  as 
a  friend,  but  I  am  really  great  as  a  protector. 

Revelling  in  such  sentiments  as  these,  I  stood  at  my  win- 
dow, looking  at  the  effect  of  moonlight  on  the  Falls.  It 
seemed  to  me  as  though  in  the  grand  spectacle  before  my 
eyes  I  beheld  a  sort  of  illustration  of  my  own  nature,  wherein 
generous  emotions  could  come  gushing,  foaming,  and  falling, 
and  yet  the  source  be  never  exhausted,  the  flood  ever  at  full. 
I  ought  parenthetically  to  observe  that  the  champagne  was 
excellent,  and  that  I  had  drunk  the  third  glass  of  the  second 
bottle  to  the  health  of  the  widow  Cliquot  herself.  Thus 
standing  and  musing,  I  was  startled  by  a  noise  behind  me, 
and,  turning  round,  I  saw  one  of  the  smallest  of  men  in  a 
little  red  Greek  jacket  and  short  yellow  breeches,  carefully 
engaged  in  spreading  a  small  piece  of  carpet  on  the  floor,  a 
strip  like  a  very  diminutive  hearth-rug.  This  done,  he  gave 
a  little  wild  exclamation  of  "  Ho!  "  and  cut  a  somersault  in 
the  air,  alighting  on  the  flat  of  his  back,  which  he  announced 
by  a  like  cry  of  ''  Ha!  "  He  was  up  again,  however,  in  an 
instant,  and  repeated  the  performance  three  times.  He  was 
about,  as  I  judged  by  the  arrangement  of  certain  chairs,  to 
proceed  to  other  exercises  equally  diverting,  when  I  stopped 
him  by  asking  who  he  was. 

''Your  Excellency,"  said  he,  drawing  himself  up  to  his 
full  height  of,  say,  four  feet,   "  I  am  Vaterchen !  " 

Every  one  knows  what  provoking  things  are  certain 
chance  resemblances,  how  disturbing  to  the  right  current 
of  thought,  how  subverting  to  the  free  exercise  of  reason. 
Now,  this  creature  before  me,  in  his  deeply  indented  temples, 
high  narrow  forehead,  aquiline  nose,  and  resolute  chin,  was 
marvellously  like  a  certain  great  field-marshal  with  whose 
features,  notwithstanding  the  portraits  of  him,  we  are  all 
familiar.  It  was  not  of  the  least  use  to  me  that  I  knew  he 
was  not  the  illustrious  general,  but  simply  a  mountebank. 
There  were  the  stern  traits,  haughty  and  defiant;  and  do 
what  I  would,  the  thought  of  the  great  man  would  clash  with 
the  capers  of  the  little  one.  Owing  to  this  impression,  it 
was  impossible  for  me  to  address  him  without  a  certain  sense 
of  deference  and  respect. 

''Will  you  not  be  seated?"  said  I,  offering  him  a  chair 


VATERCHEN  AND  TINTEFLECK.  223 

and  taking  one  myself.  He  accepted  with  all  the  quiet 
ease  of  good  breeding,  and  smiled  courteously  as  I  filled  a 
glass  and  passed  it  towards  him. 

I  pressed  my  hand  across  my  eyes  for  a  few  moments 
while  I  reflected,  and  I  muttered  to  myself,  — 

"Oh,  Potts,  if  instead  of  a  tumbler  this  had  really  been 
the  hero,  what  an  evening  might  this  be !  Lives  there  that 
man  in  Europe  so  capable  of  feeling  in  all  its  intensity  the 
glorious  privilege  of  such  a  meeting?  Who,  like  you,  would 
listen  to  the  wisdom  distilling  from  those  lips  ?  Who  would 
treasure  up  every  trait  of  voice,  accent,  and  manner,  re- 
membering, not  alone  every  anecdote,  but  every  expression  ? 
Who,  like  you,  could  have  gracefully  led  the  conversation 
so  as  to  range  over  the  whole  wide  ocean  of  that  great  life, 
taking  in  battles  and  sieges  and  stormings  and  congresses, 
and  scenes  of  all  that  is  most  varied  and  exciting  in  exist- 
ence ?  Would  not  the  record  of  one  such  night,  drawn  by 
you,  have  been  worth  all  the  cold  compilations  and  bleak 
biographies  that  ever  were  written  ?  You  would  have  pre- 
sented him  as  he  sat  there  in  front  of  you."  1  opened  my 
eyes  to  paint  from  the  model,  and  there  was  the  little  dog, 
with  his  legs  straight  up  on  each  side  of  his  head  and  form- 
ing a  sort  of  gothic  arch  over  his  face.  The  wretch  had 
done  the  feat  to  amuse  me,  and  I  almost  fainted  with  horror 
as  I  saw  it. 

"Sit  down,  sir,"  said  I,  in  a  voice  of  stern  command. 
"You  little  know  the  misery  you  have  caused  me." 

I  refilled  his  glass,  and  closed  my  eyes  once  more.  In 
my  old  pharmaceutical  experiences  I  had  often  made  bread 
pills,  and  remembered  well  how,  almost  invariably,  they  had 
been  deemed  successful.  What  relief  from  pain  to  the 
agonized  sufferer  had  they  not  given !  What  slumber  to  the 
sleepless!  What  appetite,  what  vigor,  what  excitement! 
Why  should  not  the  same  treatment  apply  to  morals  as  to 
medicine?  Why,  with  faith  to  aid  one,  cannot  he  induce 
every  wished-f or  mood  of  mind  and  thought  ?  The  lay  figure 
to  support  the  drapery  suffices  for  the  artist,  the  Venus  her- 
self is  in  his  brain.  Now,  if  that  little  fellow  there  would 
neither  cut  capers  nor  speak,  I  ask  no  more  of  him.  Let 
him  sit  firmly  as  he  does  now,  staring  me  boldly  in  the  face 
that  way. 


224  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

**Yes,"  said  I,  "lay  your  hand  on  the  arm  of  your  chair, 
so,  and  let  the  other  be  clenched  thus."  And  so  I  placed 
him.  "Never  utter  a  word,  but  nod  to  me  at  rare 
intervals." 

He  has  since  acknowledged  that  he  believed  me  to  be 
deranged;  but  as  I  seemed  a  harmless  case,  and  he  could 
rely  on  his  activity  for  escape,  he  made  no  objection  to  my 
directions,  the  less,  too,  that  he  enjoyed  his  wine  immensely, 
and  was  at  liberty  to  drink  as  he  pleased. 

"Now,"  thought  I,  "one  glance,  only  one,  to  see  that  he 
poses  properly." 

All  right;  nothing  could  be  better.  His  face  was  turned 
slightly  to  one  side,  giving  what  the  painters  call  action  to 
the  head,  and  he  was  perfect.  I  now  resigned  myself  to  the 
working  of  the  spell,  and  already  I  felt  its  influence  over 
me.  Where  and  with  what  was  I  to  begin?  Numberless 
questions  thronged  to  my  mind.  I  wanted  to  know  a  thou- 
sand disputed  things,  and  fully  as  many  that  were  only  dis- 
puted by  myself.  I  felt  that  as  such  another  opportunity 
would  assuredly  never  present  itself  twice  in  my  life,  that 
the  really  great  use  of  the  occasion  would  be  to  make  every 
inquiry  subsidiary  to  my  own  case,  —  to  make  all  my  in- 
vestigations what  the  Germans  would  call  "Potts-wise." 
My  intensest  anxiety  was  then  to  ascertain  if,  like  myself, 
his  Grace  started  in  life  with  very  grand  aspirations. 

"Did  you  feel,  for  instance,  when  playing  practical  jokes 
on  Ihe  maids  of  honor  in  Dublin,  some  sixty-odd  years  ago, 
that  you  were  only,  in  sportive  vein,  throwing  off  so  much 
light  ballast  to  make  room  for  the  weightier  material  that 
was  to  steady  you  in  the  storm-tossed  sea  before  you? 
Have  you  experienced  the  almost  necessity  of  these  little 
expansions  of  eccentricity  as  I  have?  Was  there  always 
in  your  heart,  as  a  young  man,  as  there  is  now  in  mine,  a 
profound  contempt  for  the  opinions  of  your  contemporaries? 
Did  you  continually  find  yourself  repeating,  ^ Respice  finem  ! 
Mark  where  I  shall  be  yet '  ?  "  There  was  another  investiga- 
tion which  touched  me  still  more  closely,  but  it  was  long 
before  I  could  approach  it.  I  saw  all  the  difficulty  and 
delicacy  of  the  inquiry ;  but,  with  that  same  recklessness  of 
consequences  which  would  make  me  catch  at  a  queen  by  the 


VATERCHEN  AND  TINTEFLECK.  225 

back  hair  if  I  was  drowning,  I  clutched  at  this  discovery 
now,  and,  although  trembling  at  my  boldness,  asked,  "  Was 
your  Grace  ever  afraid?  I  know  the  impertinence  of  the 
question,  but  if  you  only  guessed  how  it  concerns  me,  you  'd 
forgive  it.  Nature  has  made  me  many  things,  but  not 
courageous.  Nothing  on  earth  could  induce  me  to  risk  life ; 
the  more  I  reason  about  it,  the  greater  grows  my  repug- 
nance. Now,  I  would  like  to  hear,  is  this  what  anatomists 
call  congenital?  Am  I  likely  to  grow  out  of  it?  Shall  I 
ever  be  a  dare-devil,  intrepid,  fire-eating  sort  of  creature? 
How  will  the  change  come  over  me  ?  Shall  I  feel  it  coming  ? 
Will  it  come  from  within,  or  through  external  agencies? 
And  when  it  has  arrived,  what  shall  I  become  ?  Am  I  des- 
tined to  drive  the  Zouaves  into  the  sea  by  a  bayonet  charge 
of  the  North  Cork  Rifles,  or  shall  I  only  be  great  in  council, 
and  take  weekly  trips  in  the  '  Fairy  '  to  Cowes?  1  'd  like  to 
know  this,  and  begin  a  course  of  preparation  for  my  posi- 
tion, as  I  once  knew  of  a  militia  captain  who  hardened  him- 
self for  a  campaign  by  sleeping  every  night  with  his  head 
on  the  window-stool." 

As  I  opened  my  eyes,  I  saw  the  stern  features  in  front  of 
me.  I  thought  the  words,  *'I  was  never  afraid,  sir! "  rang 
through  my  brain  till  they  filled  every  ventricle  with  their 
din. 

"Notat  Assaye?" 

''No,  sir." 

*'Not  attheDouro?" 

''No,  sir." 

"Not  at  Torres  Vedras?" 

"I  tell  you  again,  no,  sir! " 

Whether  I  uttered  this  last  with  any  uncommon  degree  of 
vehemence  or  not,  I  so  frightened  Vaterchen  that  he  cut  a 
somersault  clean  over  the  chair,  and  stood  grinning  at  me 
through  the  rails  at  the  back  of  it.  I  motioned  to  him  to 
be  reseated,  while,  passing  my  hand  across  my  brow,  I 
waved  away  the  bright  illusions  that  beset  me,  and,  with  a 
heavy  sigh,  re-entered  the  dull  world  of  reality. 

"You  are  a  clown,"  said  I,  meditatively.  "What  is  a 
clown?" 

He  did  not  answer  me  in  words,  but,  placing  his  hands 

16 


226  A  DAY'S  HIDE. 

on  his  knees,  stared  at  me  steadfastly,  and  then,  having 
fixed  my  attention,  his  face  performed  a  series  of  the  most 
fearful  contortions  I  ever  beheld.  With  one  horrible  spasm 
he  made  his  mouth  appear  to  stretch  from  ear  to  ear;  with 
another,  his  nose  wagged  from  side  to  side;  with  a  third, 
his  eyebrows  went  up  and  down  alternately,  giving  the  dif- 
ferent sides  of  his  face  two  directly  antagonistic  expres- 
sions. I  was  shocked  and  horrified,  and  called  to  him  to 
desist. 

"And  yet,"  thought  I,  "there  are  natures  who  can  delight 
in  these,  and  see  in  them  matter  for  mirth  and  laughter! " 

"Old  man,"  said  I,  gravely,  "has  it  ever  occurred  to  you 
that  in  this  horrible  commixture  of  expression,  wherein  grief 
wars  with  joy  and  sadness  with  levity,  you  are  like  one 
who,  with  a  noble  instrument  before  him,  should,  instead  of 
sweet  sounds  of  harmony,  produce  wild,  unearthly  discords, 
the  jangling  bursts  of  fiend-like  voices  ?  " 

"  The  Tintefleck  can  play  indifferently  well,  your  Excel- 
lency," said  he,  humbly.  "I  never  had  any  skill  that  way 
myself." 

Oh,  what  a  crassa  natura  was  here!  What  a  triple  wall 
of  dulness  surrounds  such  dark  intelligences ! 

"And  where  is  the  Tintefleck?  Why  is  she  not  here?" 
asked  I,  anxious  to  remove  the  discussion  to  a  ground  of 
more  equality. 

"She  is  without,  your  Excellency.  She  did  not  dare  to 
present  herself  till  your  Excellency  had  desired,  and  is  wait- 
ing in  the  corridor." 

"Let  her  come  in,"  said  I,  grandly;  and  I  drew  my  chair 
to  a  distant  corner  of  the  room  so  as  to  give  them  a  wider 
area  to  appear  in,  while  I  could,  at  the  same  time,  assume 
that  attitude  of  splendid  ease  and  graceful  protection  I  have 
seen  a  prince  accomplish  on  the  stage  at  the  moment  the 
ballet  is  about  to  begin.  The  door  opened,  and  Vaterchen 
entered,  leading  Tintefleck  by  the  hand. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

I   ATTEMPT   TO    OVERTHROW   SOCIAL   PREJUDICES. 

I  WAS  quite  right,  — Tintefleck's  entree  was  quite  dramatic. 
She  tripped  into  the  room  with  a  short  step,  nor  arrested  her 
run  till  she  came  close  to  me,  when,  with  a  deep  courtesy, 
she  bent  down  very  low,  and  then,  with  a  single  spring  back- 
ward, retreated  almost  to  the  door  again.  She  was  very 
pretty,  —  dark  enough  to  be  a  Moor,  but  with  a  rich  bril- 
liancy of  skin  never  seen  amongst  that  race,  for  she  was  a 
Calabrian ;  and  as  she  stood  there  with  her  arms  crossed 
before  her,  and  one  leg  firmly  advanced,  and  with  the  foot 
—  a  very  pretty  foot  —  well  planted,  she  was  like  —  all  the 
Italian  peasants  one  has  seen  in  the  National  Gallery  for 
years  back.  There  was  the  same  look,  half  shy;  the  same 
elevation  of  sentiment  in  the  brow,  and  the  same  coarseness 
of  the  mouth ;  plenty  of  energy,  enough  and  to  spare  of  dar- 
ing ;  but  no  timidity,  no  gentleness. 

"What  is  she  saying?"  asked  I  of  the  old  man,  as  I 
overheard  a  whisper  pass  between  them.  ''Tell  me  what  she 
has  just  said  to  you." 

"It  is  nothing,  your  Excellency,  — she  is  a  fool." 

"That  she  may  be,  but  I  insist  on  hearing  what  it  was  she 
said." 

He  seemed  embarrassed  and  ashamed,  and,  instead  of 
replying  to  me,  turned  to  address  some  words  of  reproach 
to  the  girl. 

"I  am  waiting  for  your  answer,"  said  I,  peremptorily. 

"It  is  the  saucy  way  she  has  gotten,  your  Excellency,  all 
from  over-flattery;  and  now  that  she  sees  that  there  is  no 
audience  here,  none  but  your  Excellency,  she  is  impatient 
to  be  off  again.  She  '11  never  do  anything  for  us  on  the 
night  of  a  thin  house." 


228  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"Is  this  the  tmth,  Tintefleck?  "  asked  I. 

With  a  wild  volubility,  of  which  1  could  not  gather  a 
word,  but  every  accent  of  which  indicated  passion,  if  not 
anger,  she  poured  out  something  to  the  other,  and  then  turned 
as  if  to  leave  the  room.  He  interposed  quickly,  and  spoke 
to  her,  at  first  angrily,  but  at  last  in  a  soothing  and  entreat- 
ing tone,  which  seemed  gradually  to  calm  her. 

*' There  is  more  in  this  than  you  have  told,  Vaterchen," 
said  I.  "Let  me  know  at  once  why  she  is  impatient  to  get 
away." 

"I  would  leave  it  to  herself  to  tell  your  Excellency,"  said 
he,  with  much  confusion,  "but  that  you  could  not  under- 
stand her  mountain  dialect.  The  fact  is,"  added  he,  after 
a  great  struggle  with  himself,  — "the  fact  is,  she  is  offended 
at  your  calling  her  'Tintefleck.'  She  is  satisfied  to  be  so 
named  amongst  ourselves,  where  we  all  have  similar  nick- 
names; but  that  you,  a  great  personage,  high  and  rich  and 
titled,  should  do  so,  wounds  her  deeply.     Had  you  said  —  " 

Here  he  whispered  me  in  my  ear,  and,  almost  inadvert- 
ently, I  repeated  after  him,  "Catinka." 

"iS^i,  si,  Catinka,"  said  she,  while  her  eyes  sparkled  with 
an  expression  of  wildest  delight,  and  at  the  same  instant  she 
bounded  forward  and  kissed  my  hand  twice  over. 

I  was  glad  to  have  made  my  peace,  and,  placing  a  chair 
for  her  at  the  table,  1  filled  out  a  glass  of  wine  and  pre- 
sented it.  She  only  shook  her  head  in  dissent,  and  pushed 
it  away. 

"She  has  odd  ways  in  everything,"  said  the  old  man; 
"  she  never  eats  but  bread  and  water.  It  is  her  notion  that 
if  she  were  to  taste  other  food  she  'd  lose  her  gift  of  fortune- 
telling." 

"So,  then,  she  reads  destiny  too?"  said  I,  in  astonish- 
ment. 

Before  I  could  inquire  further,  she  swept  her  hands  across 
the  strings  of  her  guitar,  and  broke  out  into  a  little  peasant 
song.  It  was  very  monotonous,  but  pleasing.  Of  course,  I 
knew  nothing  of  the  words  nor  the  meaning,  but  it  seemed 
as  though  one  thought  kept  ever  and  anon  recurring  in  the 
melody,  and  would  continue  to  rise  to  the  surface,  like  the 
air-bubbles  in  a  well.      Satisfied,   apparently,  by  the  evi- 


I  ATTEMPT  TO  OVERTHROW  SOCIAL  PREJUDICES.     229 

dences  of  my  approval,  she  had  no  sooner  finished  than  she 
began  another.  This  was  somewhat  more  pretentious,  and, 
from  what  I  could  gather,  represented  a  parting  scene  be- 
tween a  lover  and  his  mistress.  There  was,  at  least,  a  cer- 
tain action  in  the  song  which  intimated  this.  The  fervent 
earnestness  of  the  lover,  his  entreaties,  his  prayers,  and  at 
last  his  threatenings,  were  all  given  with  effect,  and  there 
was  actually  good  acting  in  the  stolid  defiance  she  opposed 
to  all ;  she  rejected  his  vows,  refused  his  pledges,  scorned 
his  menaces ;  but  when  he  had  gone  and  left  her,  when  she 
saw  herself  alone  and  desolate,  then  came  out  a  gush  of  the 
most  passionate  sorrow,  all  the  pent-up  misery  of  a  heart 
that  seemed  to  burst  with  its  weight  of  agony. 

If  I  was  in  a  measure  entranced  while  she  was  singing, 
such  was  the  tension  of  my  nerves  as  I  listened,  that  I  was 
heartily  glad  when  it  was  over.  As  for  her,  she  seemed  so 
overcome  by  the  emotion  she  had  parodied,  that  she  bent 
her  head  down,  covered  her  face  with  her  hands,  and  sobbed 
twice  or  thrice  convulsively. 

I  turned  towards  Vaterchen  to  ask  him  some  question,  I 
forget  what,  but  the  little  fellow  had  made  such  good  use  of 
the  decanter  beside  him,  while  the  music  went  on,  that  his 
cheeks  were  a  bright  crimson,  and  his  little  round  eyes  shone 
like  coals  of  fire. 

"This  young  creature  should  never  have  fallen  amongst 
such  as  you!"  said  I,  indignantly;  **she  has  feeling  and 
tenderness,  —  the  powers  of  expression  she  wields  all  evi- 
dence a  great  and  gifted  nature.  She  has,  so  to  say,  noble 
qualities." 

"Noble,  indeed!"  croaked  out  the  little  wretch,  with  a 
voice  hoarse  from  the  strong  Burgundy. 

"She  might,  with  proper  culture,  adorn  a  very  different 
sphere,"  said  I,  angrily.  "Many  have  climbed  the  ladder 
of  life  with  humbler  pretensions." 

"Ay,  and  stand  on  one  leg  on  top  of  it,  playing  the  tam- 
bourine all  the  time,"  hiccuped  he,  in  reply. 

I  did  not  fancy  the  way  he  carried  out  my  figure,  but  went 
on  with  my  reflections,  — 

"Some,  but  they  are  few,  achieve  greatness  at  a 
bound  —  " 


230  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 


H' 


'That's  what  she  does,"  broke  he  in.  "Twelve  hoops 
and  a  drum  behind  them,  at  one  spring ;  she  comes  through 
like  a  flying-fish." 

I  don't  know  what  angry  rejoinder  was  on  my  lips  to  this 
speech,  when  there  came  a  tap  at  my  door.  I  arose  at  once 
and  opened  it.  It  was  Francois,  with  a  polite  message  from 
Mrs.  Keats,  to  say  how  happy  it  would  make  her  "if  I  felt 
well  enough  to  join  her  and  Miss  Herbert  at  tea."  For 
a  second  or  two  I  knew  not  what  to  reply.  That  I  was 
"well  enough,"  Francois  was  sure  to  report,  and  in  my 
flushed  condition  I  was,  perhaps,  the  picture  of  an  exag- 
gerated state  of  convalescence;  so,  after  a  moment's  hesita- 
tion, I  muttered  out  a  blundering  excuse,  on  the  plea  of 
having  a  couple  of  friends  with  me,  "who  had  chanced  to  be 
just  passing  through  the  town  on  their  way  to  Italy." 

I  did  not  think  Francois  had  time  to  report  my  answer, 
when  I  heard  him  again  at  the  door.  It  was,  with  his  mis- 
tress's compliments,  to  say,  she  "would  be  charmed  if  I 
would  induce  my  friends  to  accompany  me." 

I  had  to  hold  my  hand  on  my  side  with  laughter  as  I 
heard  this  message,  so  absurd  was  the  proposition,  and  so 
ridiculous  seemed  the  notion  of  it.  This,  I  say,  was  the 
first  impression  made  upon  my  mind;  and  then,  almost 
as  suddenly,  there  came  another  and  very  different  one. 
"What  is  the  mission  you  have  embraced.  Potts?  "  asked  I 
of  myself.  "If  it  have  a  but  or  an  object,  is  it  not  to  over- 
throw the  mean  and  unjust  prejudices,  the  miserable  class 
distinctions,  that  separate  the  rich  from  the  poor,  the  great 
from  the  humble,  the  gifted  from  the  ignorant?  Have  you 
ever  proposed  to  yourself  a  nobler  conquest  than  over  that 
vulgar  tyranny  by  which  prosperity  lords  it  over  humble 
fortune?  Have  you  imagined  a  higher  triumph  than  to 
make  the  man  of  purple  and  fine  linen  feel  happy  in  the 
companionship  of  him  in  smock-frock  and  high-lows  ?  Could 
you  ask  for  a  happier  occasion  to  open  the  campaign  than 
this?  Mrs.  Keats  is  an  admirable  representative  of  her 
class;  she  has  all  the  rigid  prejudices  of  her  condition;  her 
sympathies  may  rise,  but  they  never  fall ;  she  can  feel  for 
the  sorrows  of  the  well-born,  she  has  no  concern  for  vulgar 
afflictions.      How  admirable  the   opportunity  to   show  her 


I  ATTEMPT  TO  OVERTHROW  SOCIAL  PREJUDICES.      231 

that  grace  and  genius  and  beauty  are  of  all  ranks!  And 
Miss  Herbert,  too,  what  a  test  it  will  be  of  her!  If  she 
really  have  greatness  of  soul,  if  there  be  in  her  nature  a 
spirit  that  rises  above  petty  conventionalities  and  miserable 
ceremonials,  she  will  take  this  young  creature  to  her  heart 
like  a  sister.  I  think  I  see  them  with  arms  entwined,  —  two 
lovely  flowers  on  one  stalk,  —  the  dark  crimson  rose  and  the 
pale  hyacinth!  Oh,  Potts!  this  would  be  a  nobler  victory 
to  achieve  than  to  rend  battalions  with  grape,  or  ride  down 
squadrons  with  the  crash  of  cavalry."  —  ''I  will  come,  Fran- 
cois," said  I.  "Tell  Mrs.  Keats  that  she  may  expect  us 
immediately."  I  took  especial  care  in  my  dialogue  to  keep 
this  prying  fellow  outside  the  room,  and  to  interpose  in  every 
attempt  that  he  made  to  obtain  a  peep  within.  In  this  I 
perfectly  succeeded,  and  dismissed  him,  without  his  being 
able  to  report  any  one  circumstance  about  my  two  travelling 
friends. 

My  next  task  was  to  inform  them  of  my  intentions  on 
their  behalf ;  nor  was  this  so  easy  as  might  be  imagined,  for 
Vaterchen  had  indulged  very  freely  with  the  wine,  and  all 
the  mountains  of  Calabria  lay  between  myself  and  Tinte- 
fleck.  With  a  great  exercise  of  ingenuit}^,  and  more  of 
patience,  I  did  at  last  succeed  in  making  known  to  the  old 
fellow  that  a  lad}^  of  the  highest  station  and  her  friend  were 
curious  to  see  them.  He  only  caught  my  meaning  after 
some  time;  but  when  he  had  surmounted  the  difficulty,  as 
though  to  show  me  how  thoroughly  he  understood  the  request, 
and  how  nicely  he  appreciated  its  object,  he  began  a  series 
of  face  contortions  of  the  most  dreadful  kind,  being  a  sort 
of  programme  of  what  he  intended  to  exhibit  to  the  dis- 
tinguished company.  I  repressed  this  firmly,  severely.  I 
explained  that  an  artist  in  all  the  relations  of  private  life 
should  be  ever  the  gentleman ;  that  the  habits  of  the  stage 
were  no  more  necessary  to  carry  into  the  world  than  the  cos- 
tume. I  dilated  upon  the  fact  that  John  Kemble  had  been 
deemed  fitting  company  by  the  first  gentleman  of  Europe ;  and 
that  if  his  manner  could  have  exposed  him  to  a  criticism,  it 
was  in,  perhaps,  a  slight  tendency  to  an  over-resers^e,  a  cold 
and  almost  stern  dignity.  I  'm  not  sure  Vaterchen  followed 
me  completely,  nor  understood  the  anecdotes  I  introduced 


232  A  DAY'S  BIDE. 

about  Edmund  Kean  and  Lord  Byron ;  but  I  now  addressed 
myself  pictorially  to  Tintefleck,  —  pictorially,  I  say,  for 
words  were  hopeless.  I  signified  that  a  tres  grande  dame 
was  about  to  receive  her.  I  arose,  with  my  skirts  expanded 
in  both  hands,  made  a  reverent  courtesy,  throwing  my  head 
well  back,  looking  every  inch  a  duchess.  But,  alas  for  my 
powers  of  representation!  she  burst  into  a  hearty  laugh, 
and  had  at  last  to  lay  her  head  on  Vaterchen's  shoulder 
out  of  pure  exhaustion. 

"Explain  to  her  what  I  have  told  you,  sir,  and  do  not  sit 
grinning  at  me  there,  like  a  baboon,"  said  I,  in  a  severe 
voice. 

I  cannot  say  how  he  acquitted  himself,  but  I  could  gather 
that  a  very  lively  altercation  ensued,  and  it  seemed  to  me 
as  though  she  resolutely  refused  to  subject  herself  to  any 
further  ordeals  of  what  academicians  call  a  "private  view." 
No;  she  was  ready  for  the  ring  and  the  sawdust,  and  the 
drolleries  of  the  men  with  chalk  on  their  faces,  but  she  would 
not  accept  high  life  on  any  terms.  By  degrees,  and  by  argu- 
ments of  his  own  ingenious  devising,  however,  he  did 
succeed,  and  at  last  she  arose  with  a  bound,  and  cried 
out,  "Eccomi!" 

"Remember,"  said  I  to  Vaterchen,  as  we  left  the  room,  "I 
am  doing  that  which  few  would  have  the  courage  to  dare. 
It  will  depend  upon  the  dignity  of  your  conduct,  the  grace 
of  your  manners,  the  well-bred  ease  of  your  address,  to  make 
me  feel  proud  of  my  intrepidity,  or,  sad  and  painful  possi- 
bility, retire  covered  with  ineffable  shame  and  discomfiture. 
Do  you  comprehend  me  ?  " 

"Perfectly,"  said  he,  standing  erect,  and  giving  even  in 
his  attitude  a  sort  of  bail  bond  for  future  dignity.  "Lead 
on!" 

This  was  more  familiar  than  he  had  been  yet;  but  I 
ascribed  it  to  the  tension  of  nerves  strung  to  a  high  pur- 
pose, and  rendering  him  thus  inaccessible  to  other  thoughts 
than  of  the  enterprise  before  him. 

As  I  neared  the  door  of  Mrs.  Keats's  apartment,  I  hesi- 
tated as  to  how  I  should  enter.  Ought  I  to  precede  my 
friends,  and  present  them  as  they  followed?  Or  would  it 
seem  more  easy  and  more  assured  if  I  were  to  give  my  arm 


I  ATTEMPT  TO  OVERTHROW  SOCIAL  PREJUDICES.      233 

to  Tintefleck,  leaving  Vaterchen  to  bring  up  the  rear  ?  After 
much  deliberation,  this  appeared  to  be  the  better  course, 
seeming  to  take  for  granted  that,  although  some  peculiari- 
ties of  costume  might  ask  for  explanation  later  on,  I  was 
about  to  present  a  very  eligible  and  charming  addition  to 
the  company. 

I  am  scarcely  able  to  say  whether  I  was  or  was  not  re- 
assured by  the  mode  in  which  she  accepted  the  offer  of  my 
arm.  At  first,  the  proposition  appeared  unintelligible,  and 
she  looked  at  me  with  one  of  those  wide-eyed  stares,  as 
though  to  say,  ''What  new  gymnastic  is  this?  What  tour 
de  force^  of  which  I  never  heard  before  ?  "  and  then,  with  a 
sort  of  jerk,  she  threw  my  arm  up  in  the  air  and  made  a 
pirouette  under  it,  of  some  half-dozen  whirls. 

Half  reprovingly  I  shook  my  head,  and  offered  her  my 
hand.  This  she  understood  at  once.  She  recognized  such 
a  mode  of  approach  as  legitimate  and  proper,  and  with  an 
artistic  shake  of  her  drapery  with  the  other  hand,  and  a 
confident  smile,  she  signified  she  was  ready  to  go  "on." 

I  was  once  on  a  time  thrown  over  a  horse's  head  into  a  slate 
quarry ;  a  very  considerable  drop  it  was,  and  nearly  fatal. 
On  another  occasion  I  was  carried  in  a  small  boat  over  the 
fall  of  a  salmon  weir,  and  hurried  along  in  the  flood  for 
almost  three  hundred  yards.  Each  of  these  was  a  situation 
of  excitement  and  peril,  and  with  considerable  confusion  as 
the  consequence ;  and  yet  I  could  deliberately  recount  you 
every  passing  phase  of  my  terror,  from  my  first  fright  down 
to  my  complete  unconsciousness,  with  such  small  traits  as 
would  guarantee  truthfulness ;  while,  of  the  scene  upon  which 
I  now  adventured,  I  preserve  nothing  beyond  the  vaguest 
and  most  unconnected  memory. 

I  remember  my  advance  into  the  middle  of  the  room. 
I  have  a  recollection  of  a  large  tea-urn,  and  beyond  it  a 
lady  in  a  turban ;  another  in  long  ringlets  there  was.  The 
urn  made  a  noise  like  a  small  steamer,  and  there  was  a  con- 
fusion of  voices  —  about  what,  I  cannot  tell  —  that  increased 
the  uproar,  and  we  were  all  standing  up  and  all  talking  to- 
gether; and  there  was  what  seemed  an  angry  discussion, 
and  then  the  large  turban  and  the  ringlets  swept  haughtily 
past  me.     The  turban  said,  "This  is  too  much,  sir!  "  and 


234  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

ringlets  added,  *'Far  too  much,  sir!"  and  as  they  reached 
the  door,  there  was  Vaterchen  on  his  head,  with  a  branch  of 
candles  between  his  feet  to  light  them  out,  and  Tintefleck, 
screaming  with  laughter,  threw  herself  into  an  arm-chair, 
and  clapped  a  most  riotous  applause. 

I  stood  a  moment  almost  transfixed,  then  dashed  out  of 
the  room,  hurried  upstairs  to  my  chamber,  bolted  the  door, 
drew  a  great  clothes-press  against  it  for  further  security, 
and  then  threw  myself  upon  my  bed  in  one  of  those  par- 
oxysms of  mad  confusion,  in  which  a  man  cannot  say 
whether  he  is  on  the  verge  of  inevitable  ruin,  or  has  just 
been  rescued  from  a  dreadful  fate.  I  would  not,  if  even  I 
could,  recount  all  that  I  suffered  that  night.  There  was  not 
a  scene  of  open  shame  and  disgrace  that  I  did  not  picture  to 
myself  as  incurring.  I  was  everywhere  in  the  stocks  or  the 
pillory.  I  wore  a  wooden  placard  on  my  breast,  inscribed, 
"Potts  the  Impostor."  I  was  running  at  top  speed  before 
hooting  and  yelling  crowds.  I  was  standing  with  a  circle 
of  protecting  policemen  amidst  a  mob  eager  to  tear  me  to 
pieces.  I  was  sitting  on  a  hard  stool  while  my  hair  was 
being  cropped  a  la  Pentonville,  and  a  gray  suit  lay  ready  for 
me  when  it  was  done.  But  enough  of  such  a  dreary  record. 
I  believe  I  cried  myself  to  sleep  at  last,  and  so  soundly, 
too,  that  it  was  very  late  in  the  afternoon  ere  I  awoke.  It 
was  the  sight  of  the  barricade  I  had  erected  at  my  door  gave 
me  a  clew  to  the  past,  and  again  I  buried  my  face  in  my 
hands,  and  wept  bitterly. 


CHAPTER  XXVni. 

RESULTS    OF    THE    EXPERIMENT. 

I  COULD  not  hear  the  loud  and  repeated  knockings  which 
were  made  at  my  door,  as  at  first  waiters,  and  then  the  land- 
lord himself,  endeavored  to  gain  admittance.  At  length  a 
ladder  was  placed  at  the  window,  and  a  courageous  indi- 
vidual, duly  armed,  appeared  at  my  casement  and  summoned 
me  to  surrender.  With  what  unspeakable  relief  did  I  learn 
that  it  was  not  to  apprehend  or  arrest  me  that  all  these 
measures  were  taken :  they  were  simply  the  promptings  of  a 
graceful  benevolence ;  a  sort  of  rumored  intimation  having 
got  about,  that  I  had  taken  prussic  acid,  or  was  being  done 
to  death  by  charcoal.  Imagine  a  prisoner  in  a  condemned 
cell  suddenly  awakened,  and  hearing  that  the  crowd  around 
him  consisted  not  of  the  ordinary,  the  sheriff,  Mr.  Calcraft 
and  Co.,  but  a  deputation  of  respectable  citizens  come  to 
offer  the  representation  of  their  borough  or  a  piece  of  plate, 
and  then  you  can  have  a  mild  conception  of  the  pleasant 
revulsion  of  my  feelings.  I  thanked  my  public  in  a  short 
but  appropriate  address.  I  assured  them,  although  there 
was  a  popular  prejudice  about  doing  this  sort  of  thing  in 
November  in  England,  that  it  was  deemed  quite  unreason- 
able at  other  times,  and  that  really,  in  these  days  of  domestic 
arsenic  and  conjugal  strychnine,  nothing  but  an  unreason- 
able impatience  would  make  a  man  self-destructive,  —  suicide 
arguing  that  as  a  man  was  really  so  utterly  valueless,  it  was 
worth  nobody's  while  to  get  rid  of  him.  My  explanation 
over,  I  ordered  breakfast. 

"Why  not  dinner?"  said  the  waiter.  "It  is  close  on 
four  o'clock." 

"  No,"  said  I;  "the  ladies  will  expect  me  at  dinner." 


236  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

"  The  ladies  are  near  Constance  by  this,  or  else  the  roads 
are  worse  than  we  thought  them." 

"Near  Constance!  Do  you  mean  to  say  they  have 
gone  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir,  at  daybreak;  or,  indeed,  I  might  say  before 
daybreak." 

"  Gone  !  actually  gone !  "  was  all  that  I  could  utter. 

"  They  never  went  to  bed  last  night,  sir ;  the  old  lady  was 
taken  very  ill  after  tea,  and  all  the  house  running  here  and 
there  for  doctors  and  remedies,  and  the  young  lady,  though 
she  bore  up  so  well,  they  tell  me  she  fainted  when  she  was 
alone  in  her  own  room.  In  fact,  it  was  a  piece  of  confusion 
and  trouble  until  they  started,  and  we  may  say,  none  of  u& 
had  a  moment's  peace  till  we  saw  them  off." 

"  And  how  came  it  that  I  was  never  called?" 

"I  believe,  sir,  but  I'm  not  sure,  the  landlord  tried  to 
awake  you.  At  all  events,  he  has  a  note  for  you  now,  for  I 
saw  the  old  lady  place  it  in  his  hand." 

"  Fetch  it  at  once,"  said  I ;  and  when  he  left  the  room,  I 
threw  some  water  over  my  face,  and  tried  to  rally  all  my 
faculties  to  meet  the  occasion. 

When  the  waiter  reappeared  with  the  note,  I  bade  him 
leave  it  on  the  table  ;  I  could  not  venture  to  read  it  while  he 
was  in  the  room.  At  length  he  went  away,  and  I  opened  it. 
These  were  the  contents :  — 

"  Sir,  —  When  a  person  of  your  rank  abuses  the  privilege  of  hi& 
station,  it  is  supposed  that  he  means  to  rebuke.  Although  innocent 
of  any  cause  for  your  displeasure,  I  have  preferred  to  withdraw  my- 
self from  your  notice  than  incur  the  chance  of  so  severe  a  reprimand 
a  second  time. 

"  I  am,  sir,  with  unfeigned  sorrow  and  humility,  your  most  devoted 
follower  and  servant, 

"Martha  Keats. 

"Tothe  — de  — " 

This  was  the  whole  of  it ;  not  a  great  deal  as  correspond- 
ence, but  matter  enough  for  much  thought  and  much  misery. 
After  a  long  and  painful  review  of  my  conduct,  one  startling 
fact  stood  prominently  forward,  which  was,  that  I  had  done 
something  which,  had   it  been   the   act  of   a  royal  prince. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EXPERIMENT.        237 

would  yet  have  been  unpardonable,  but  which,  if  known  to 
emanate  from  one  such  as  myself,  would  have  been  a  down- 
right outrage. 

I  went  into  the  whole  case,  as  a  man  who  detests  figures 
might  have  gone  into  a  long  and  complicated  account ;  and 
just  as  he  would  skip  small  sums,  and  pay  little  heed  to 
fractions,  I  aimed  at  arriving  at  some  grand  solid  balance 
for  or  against  myself. 

I  felt,  that  if  asked  to  produce  my  books,  they  might 
run  this  wise:  Potts,  on  the  credit  side,  a  philanthropist, 
self-denying,  generous,  and  trustful ;  one  eager  to  do  good, 
thinking  no  evil  of  his  neighbor,  hopeful  of  everybody,  anx- 
ious to  establish  that  brotherhood  amongst  men  which,  how- 
ever varied  the  station,  could  and  ought  to  subsist,  and 
which  needs  but  the  connecting  link  of  one  sympathetic 
existence  to  establish.  On  the  other  side,  Potts,  I  grieve  to 
say,  appeared  that  which  Ferdinand  Mendez  Pinto  was  said 
to  be. 

When  I  had  rallied  a  bit  from  the  stunning  effect  of  this 
disagreeable  "'  total,"  I  began  to  wish  that  I  had  somebody 
to  argue  the  matter  out  with  me.  The  way  I  would  put  my 
case  would  be  thus:  "Has  not  —  from  the  time  of  Martins 
Curtius  down  to  the  late  Mr.  Sadlier,  of  banking  celebrity  — 
the  sacrifice  of  one  man  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellows,  been 
recognized  as  the  noblest  exposition  of  heroism?  Now,  al- 
though it  is  much  to  give  up  life  for  the  advantage  of  others, 
it  is  far  more  to  surrender  one's  identity,  to  abandon  that 
grand  capital  Ego !  which  gives  a  man  his  self-esteem  and 
suggests  his  self-preservation.  And  who,  I  would  ask,  does 
this  so  thoroughly  as  the  man  who  everlastingly  palms  him- 
self upon  the  world  for  that  which  he  is  not?  According  to 
the  greatest  happiness  principle,  this  man  may  be  a  real 
boon  to  humanity.  He  feeds  this  one  with  hope,  the  othei 
with  flattery ;  he  bestows  courage  on  the  weak,  confidence 
on  the  wavering.  The  rich  man  can  give  of  his  abundance, 
but  it  is  out  of  his  very  poverty  this  poor  fellow  has  to  be- 
stow all.  Like  the  spider,  he  has  to  weave  his  web  from  his 
own  vitals,  and  like  the  same  spider  he  may  be  swept  away 
by  some  pretentious  affectation  of  propriety." 

While  I  thus  argued,  the  waiter  came  in  to  serve  dinner. 


238  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

It  looked  all  appetizing  and  nice ;  but  I  could  not  touch  a 
morsel.  I  was  sick  at  heart;  Kate  Herbert's  last  look  as 
she  quitted  the  room  was  ever  before  me.  Those  dark  gray- 
eyes  —  which  you  stupid  folk  will  go  on  calling  blue  —  have 
a  sort  of  reproachful  power  in  them  very  remarkable.  They 
don't  flash  out  in  anger  like  black  eyes,  or  sparkle  in  fierce- 
ness like  hazel;  but  they  emit  a  sort  of  steady,  fixed,  con- 
centrated light,  that  seems  to  imply  that  they  have  looked 
thoroughly  into  you,  and  come  back  very  sad  and  very  sorry 
for  the  inquiry.  I  thought  of  the  happy  days  I  had  passed 
beside  her ;  I  recalled  her  low  and  gentle  voice,  her  sweet,  half- 
sad  smile,  and  her  playful  laugh,  and  I  said,  "  Have  I  lost 
all  these  forever,  and  how?  What  stupid  folly  possessed  me 
last  evening?  How  could  I  have  been  so  idiotic  as  not  to 
see  that  I  was  committing  the  rankest  of  all  enormities? 
How  should  I,  in  my  insignificance,  dare  to  assail  the  barriers 
and  defences  which  civilization  has  established,  and  guards 
amongst  its  best  prerogatives?  Was  this  old  buffoon,  was 
this  piece  of  tawdry  fringe  and  spangles,  a  fitting  company 
for  that  fair  and  gentle  girl?  How  artistically  false,  too, 
was  the  position  I  had  taken !  Interweaving  into  my  ideal 
life  these  coarse  realities,  was  the  same  sort  of  outrage  as 
shocks  one  in  some  of  the  Venetian  churches,  where  a  lovely 
Madonna,  the  work  of  a  great  hand,  may  be  seen  bediz- 
ened and  disfigured  with  precious  stones  over  her  drapery. 
In  this  was  I  violating  the  whole  poetry  of  my  existence. 
These  figures  were  as  much  out  of  keeping  as  would  be  a 
couple  of  Ostade's  Boors  in  a  grand  Scripture  piece  by 
Domenichino. 

^'And  yet,  Potts,"  thought  I,  ''they  were  reoMy  living 
creatures.  They  had  hearts  for  joy  and  sorrow  and  hope, 
and  the  rest  of  it.  They  were  pilgrims  travelling  the  self- 
same road  as  you  were.  They  were  not  illusions,  but  flesh 
and  blood  folk,  that  would  shiver  when  cold,  and  die  of 
hunger  if  starved.  Were  they  not,  then,  as  such,  of  more 
account  than  all  your  mere  imaginings?  Would  not  the 
least  of  their  daily  miseries  outweigh  a  whole  bushel  of 
fancied  sorrow?  And  is  it  not  a  poor  selfishness  on  your 
part,  when  you  deem  some  airy  conception  of  your  brain 
of  more  account  than  that  poor  old  man  and  that  dark-eyed 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EXPERIMENT.  239 

girl?  Last  of  all,  are  they  not,  in  all  their  ragged  finery, 
more  *  really  true  men '  than  you  yourself,  Potts,  living  in 
a  maze  of  delusions?  They  only  act  when  the  sawdust  is 
raked  and  the  lamps  are  lighted ;  but  you  are  en  scene  from 
dawn  to  dark,  and  only  lay  down  one  motley  to  don  another. 
Is  not  this  wretched?  Is  it  not  ignoble?  In  all  these 
changes  of  character,  how  much  of  the  real  man  will  be  left 
behind?  Will  there  be  one  morsel  of  honest  flesh,  when 
all  the  lacquer  of  paint  is  washed  off?  And  was  it  —  oh, 
was  it  for  this  you  first  adventured  out  on  the  wide  ocean 
of  life?" 

I  passed  the  evening  and  a  great  part  of  the  night  in  such 
self-accusings,  and  then  I  addressed  myself  to  action.  I 
bethought  me  of  my  future,  and  with  whom  and  where  and 
how  it  might  be  passed.  The  bag  of  money  intrusted  to  me 
by  the  Minister  to  pay  the  charges  of  the  road  was  hanging 
where  I  had  placed  it,  —  on  the  curtain-holder.  I  opened  it, 
and  found  a  hundred  and  forty  gold  Napoleons,  and  some 
ten  or  twelve  pounds  in  silver.  I  next  set  to  count  over  my 
own  especial  hoard ;  it  was  a  fraction  under  a  thousand 
francs.  Forty  pounds  was  truly  a  very  small  sum  wherewith 
to  confront  a  world  to  which  I  brought  not  any  art,  or  trade, 
or  means  of  livelihood ;  I  say  forty,  because  I  had  not  the 
shadow  of  a  pretext  for  touching  the  other  sum,  and  I  re- 
solved at  once  to  transmit  it  to  the  owner.  Now,  what  could 
be  done  with  so  humble  a  capital?  I  had  heard  of  a  great 
general  who  once  pawned  a  valuable  sword  —  a  sword  of 
honor  it  was  —  wherewith  to  buy  a  horse,  and,  so  mounted, 
he  went  forth  over  the  Alps,  and  conquered  a  kingdom. 
The  story  had  no  moral  for  me,  for  somehow  I  did  not  feel 
as  though  I  were  the  stuff  that  conquers  kingdoms,  and  yet 
there  must  surely  be  a  vast  number  of  men  in  life  with  about 
the  same  sort  of  faculties,  merits,  and  demerits  as  I  have. 
There  must  be  a  numerous  Potts  family  in  every  land,  well- 
meaning,  right-intentioned,  worthless  creatures,  who,  out  of 
a  supposed  willingness  to  do  anything,  always  end  in  doing 
nothing.  Such  people,  it  must  be  inferred,  live  upon  what 
are  called  their  wits,  or,  in  other  words,  trade  upon  the  daily 
accidents  of  life,  and  the  use  to  which  they  can  turn  the 
traits  of  those  they  meet  with. 


240  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  was  resolved  not  to  descend  to  this;  no,  I  had  deter- 
mined to  say  adieu  to  all  masquerading,  and  be  simply 
Potts,  the  druggist's  son,  one  who  had  once  dreamed  of 
great  ambitions,  but  had  taken  the  wrong  road  to  them. 
I  would  from  this  hour  be  an  honest,  truth-speaking,  simple- 
hearted  creature.  What  the  world  might  henceforth  accord 
me  of  its  sympathy  should  be  tendered  on  honest  grounds ; 
nay,  more,  in  the  spirit  of  those  devotees  who  inspire  them- 
selves with  piety  by  privations,  I  resolved  on  a  course  of 
self -mortification,  I  would  not  rest  till  I  had  made  my  former 
self  expiate  all  the  vainglorious  wantonness  of  the  past,  and 
pay  in  severe  penance  for  every  transgression  I  had  com- 
mitted. I  began  boldly  with  my  reformation.  I  sat  down 
and  wrote  thus ;  — 

"  To  Mr.  Dycer,  Stephen's-green,  Dublin. 

"The  gentleman  who  took  away  a  dun  pony  from  your  livery 
stables  in  the  month  of  May  last,  and  who,  from  certain  circum- 
stances, has  not  been  able  to  restore  the  animal,  sends  herewith 
twenty  pounds  as  his  probable  value.  If  Mr.  D.  conscientiously  con- 
siders the  sum  insufficient,  the  sender  will  at  some  future  time,  he 
hopes,  make  good  the  difference." 

Doubtless  my  esteemed  reader  will  say  at  this  place, 
"  The  fellow  could  n't  do  less ;  he  need  not  vaunt  himself 
on  a  commonplace  act  of  honesty,  which,  after  all,  might 
have  been  suggested  by  certain  fears  of  future  consequences. 
His  indiscretion  amounted  to  horse-stealing,  and  horse- 
stealing is  a  felony." 

All  true,  every  word  of  it,  most  upright  of  judges :  I  was 
simply  doing  what  I  ought,  or  rather  what  I  ought  long  since 
to  have  done.  But  now,  let  me  ask,  is  this,  after  all,  the 
invariable  course  in  life,  and  is  there  no  merit  in  doing 
what  one  ought  when  every  temptation  points  to  the  other 
direction?  and  lastlj'^,  is  it  nothing  to  do  what  a  man  ought, 
when  the  doing  costs  exactly  the  half  of  all  he  has  in  the 
world  ? 

Now,  if  I  were,  instead  of  being  Potts,  a  certain  great 
writer  that  we  all  know  and  delight  in,  I  would  improve 
the  occasion  here  by  asking  my  reader  does  he  always 
himself  do  the  right  thing?     I  would  say  to  him,  perhaps 


RESULTS  OF  THE  EXPERIMENT.        241 

with  all  haste  to  anticipate  his  answer,  "Of  course  you  do. 
You  never  pinch  your  children,  or  kick  your  wife  out  of  bed  ; 
you  are  a  model  father  and  a  churchwarden ;  but  I  am  only 
a  poor  apothecary's  son  brought  up  in  precepts  of  thrift  and 
the  Dublin  Pharmacopoeia ;  "  and  I  own  to  you,  when  I  placed 
the  half  of  my  twenty-pound  crisp  clean  bank  note  inside  of 
that  letter,  I  felt  I  was  figuratively  cutting  myself  in  two. 
But  I  did  it  "  like  a  man,"  if  that  be  a  proper  phrase  for  an 
act  which  I  thought  godlike.  And  oh,  take  my  word  for  it, 
when  a  sacrifice  has  n't  cost  you  a  coach-load  of  regrets  and 
a  shopful  of  hesitations  about  making  it,  it  is  of  little  worth. 
There 's  a  wide  difference  between  the  gift  of  a  sheep  from 
an  Australian  farmer,  or  the  present  of  a  child's  pet  lamb, 
even  though  the  sheep  be  twice  the  size  of  the  lamb. 

I  gave  myself  no  small  praise  for  what  I  had  done,  much 
figurative  patting  on  the  back,  and  a  vast  deal  of  that  very 
ambiguous  consolation  which  beggars  in  Catholic  countries 
bestow  in  change  for  alms,  by  assurance  that  it  will  be 
remembered  to  you  in  purgatory. 

'*  Well,"  thought  I,  "the  occasion  isn't  very  far  off,  for 
my  purgatory  begins  to-morrow." 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


16 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

ON   FOOT    AND    IN   LOW   COMPANY. 

I  WAS  in  a  tourist  locality,  and  easily  provided  myself  with  a 
light  equipment  for  the  road,  resolved  at  once  to  take  the 
footpath  in  life  and  ''  seek  my  fortune."  I  use  these  words 
simply  as  the  expression  of  the  utter  uncertainty  which  pre- 
vailed as  to  whither  I  should  go,  and  what  do  when  I  got  there. 

If  there  be  few  more  joyous  things  in  life  than  to  start 
off  on  foot  with  three  or  four  choice  companions,  to  ramble 
through  some  fine  country  rich  in  scenery,  varied  in  charac- 
ter and  interesting  in  story,  there  are  few  more  lonely  sensa- 
tions than  to  set  out  by  oneself,  not  very  decided  what  way 
to  take,  and  with  very  little  money  to  take  it. 

One  of  the  most  grievous  features  of  small  means  is,  cer- 
tainly, the  almost  exclusive  occupation  it  gives  the  mind  as 
to  every,  even  the  most  trivial,  incident  that  involves  cost. 
Instead  of  dining  on  fish  and  fowl  and  fruit,  you  feel  eating 
so  many  groschen  and  kreutzers.  You  are  not  drinking  wine, 
your  beverage  is  a  solution  of  copper  batzen  in  vinegar!' 
When  you  poke  the  fire,  every  spark  that  flies  up  the  chimney 
is  a  baiocco  !  You  come  at  last  to  suspect  that  the  sun  won't 
warm  you  for  nothing,  and  that  the  very  breeze  that  cooled 
your  brow  is  only  waiting  round  the  corner  to  ask  *'  for  somC' 
thing  for  himself.'* 

When  the  rich  man  lives  sparingly,  the  conscious  power 
of  the  wealth  he  might  employ  if  he  pleased,  sustains  him. 
The  poor  fellow  has  no  such  consolation  to  fall  back  on ; 
the  closer  his  coat  is  examined,  the  more  threadbare  will 
it  appear.  If  it  were  simply  that  he  dressed  humbly  and 
fared  coarsely,  it  might  be  borne  well,  but  it  is  the  hourly 
depreciation  that  poverty  is  exposed  to,  makes  its  true 
grievance.     **An   ill-looking"  —  this  means,  generally,  ill- 


ON  FOOT  AND  IN  LOW  COMPANY.  243 

dressed  —  *' an  ill-looking  fellow  bad  been  seen  about  the 
premises  at  night-fall,"  says  the  police  report.  "A  very 
suspicious  character  had  asked  for  a  bed  ;  his  wardrobe  was 
in  a  'spotted  handkerchief.'  The  waiter  remembers  that  a 
fellow,  much  travel-stained  and  weary,  stopped  at  the  door 
that  evening  and  asked  if  there  was  any  cheap  house  of 
entertainment  in  the  village."  Heaven  help  the  poor  way- 
farer if  any  one  has  been  robbed,  any  house  broken  into, 
any  rick  set  fire  to,  while  he  passed  through  that  locality. 
There  is  no  need  of  a  crowd  of  witnesses  to  convict  him, 
since  every  bend  in  his  hat,  every  tear  in  his  coat,  and  every 
rent  in  his  shoes  are  evidence  against  him. 

If  I  thought  over  these  things  in  sorrow  and  humiliation, 
it  was  in  a  very  proud  spirit  that  I  called  to  mind  how,  on 
that  same  morning,  I  deposited  the  bag  with  all  the  money 
in  Messrs.  Haber's  bank,  saw  the  contents  duly  counted 
over,  replaced  and  sealed  up,  and  then  addressed  to  Her 
Majesty's  Minister  at  Kalbbratonstadt,  taking  a  receipt  for 
the  same.  '*  This  was  only  just  common  honesty,"  says  the 
reader.  Oh,  if  there  is  an  absurd  collocation  of  words,  it 
is  that!  Common  honesty!  why,  there  is  nothing  in  this 
world  so  perfectly,  so  totally  uncommon !  Never,  I  beseech 
you,  undervalue  the  waiter  who  restores  the  ring  you  dropped 
in  the  coffee-room ;  nor  hold  him  cheaply  who  gives  back  the 
umbrella  you  left  in  the  cab.  These  seem  such  easy  things 
to  do,  but  they  are  not  easy.  Men  are  more  or  less  Cornish 
wreckers  in  life,  and  very  apt  to  regard  the  lost  article  as 
treasure-trove.  I  have  said  all  this  to  you,  amiable  reader, 
that  you  may  know  what  it  cost  me,  on  that  same  morning, 
not  to  be  a  rogue,  and  not  to  enrich  myself  with  the  goods 
of  another. 

I  underwent  a  very  long  and  searching  self-examination  to 
ascertain  why  it  was  I  had  not  appropriated  that  bag,  — 
an  offence  which,  legally  speaking,  would  only  amount  to  a 
breach  of  trust.  I  said,  "  Is  it  that  you  had  no  need  of  the 
money,  Potts?  Did  you  feel  that  your  own  means  were 
ample  enough  ?  Was  it  that  your  philosophy  had  made  you 
regard  gold  as  mere  dross,  and  then  think  that  the  load  was 
a  burden?  Or,  taking  higher  ground,  had  you  recalled  the 
first  teachings  of  your  venerable  parent,  that  good  man  and 


244  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

careful  apothecary,  who  had  given  you  your  first  perceptions 
of  right  and  wrong  ?  "  I  fear  that  I  was  obliged  to  say  No, 
in  turn,  to  each  of  these  queries.  I  would  have  been  very 
glad  to  be  right,  proud  to  have  been  a  philosopher,  overjoyed 
to  feel  myself  swayed  by  moral  motives,  but  I  could  not 
palm  the  imposition  on  my  conscience,  and  had  honestly  to 
own  that  the  real  reason  of  my  conduct  was  —  I  was  in  love ! 
There  was  the  whole  of  it! 

There  was  an  old  sultan  once  so  impressed  with  an  ill 
notion  of  the  sex,  that  whenever  a  tale  of  misfortune  or  dis- 
grace reached  him,  his  only  inquiry  as  to  the  source  of  the 
evil  was,  Who  was  she  ?  Now,  my  experiences  of  life  have 
travelled  in  another  direction,  and  whenever  I  read  of  some 
noble  piece  of  heroism  or  some  daring  act  of  self-devotion, 
I  don't  ask  whether  he  got  the  Bath  or  the  Victoria  Cross,  if 
he  were  made  a  governor  here  or  a  vice-governor  there,  but 
who  was  She  that  prompted  this  glorious  deed  ?  I  'd  like  to 
know  all  about  her :  the  color  of  her  eyes,  her  hair ;  was  she 
slender  or  plump ;  was  she  fiery  or  gentle ;  was  it  an  old 
attachment  or  an  acute  attack  coming  after  a  paroxysm  at 
first  sight? 

^  If  1  were  the  great  chief  of  some  great  public  department 
where  all  my  subordinates  were  obliged  to  give  heavy  secu- 
rity for  their  honesty,  I  would  neither  ask  for  bail  bonds  or 
sureties,  but  I'd  say,  *'Have  you  got  a  wife,  or  a  sweet- 
heart? Either  will  do.  Let  me  look  at  her.  If  she  be  worthy 
an  honest  man's  love,  I  am  satisfied ;  mount  your  high  stool 
and  write  away:" 

Oh,  how  I  longed  to  stand  aright  in  that  dear  girl's  eyes, 
that  she  should  see  me  worthy  of  her !  Had  she  yielded  to 
all  my  wayward  notions  and  rambling  opinions,  giving  way 
either  in  careless  indolence  or  out  of  inability  to  dispute 
them,  she  had  never  made  the  deep  impression  on  my  heart. 
It  was  because  she  had  bravely  asserted  her  own  indepen- 
dence, never  conceding  where  unconvinced,  never  yielding 
where  unvanquished,  that  I  loved  her.  What  a  stupid 
revery  was  that  of  mine  when  I  fancied  her  one  of  those 
strong-minded,  determined  women,  —  a  thickly  shod,  um- 
brella-carrying female,  who  can  travel  alone  and  pass  her 
trunk  through  a  custom-house.     No,  she  was  delicate,  timid, 


ON  FOOT  AND  IN  LOW  COMPANY.  245 

and  gentle ;  there  was  no  over-confidence  in  her,  nor  the 
slightest  pretension.  Rule  me?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  Guide, 
direct,  support,  confirm,  sustain  me ;  elevate  my  sentiments, 
cheer  me  on  my  road  in  life,  making  all  evil  odious  in  my 
eyes,  and  the  good  to  seem  better ! 

I  verily  believe,  with  such  a  woman,  an  humble  condition 
m  life  offers  more  chances  of  happiness  than  a  state  of 
wealth  and  splendor.  If  the  best  prizes  of  life  are  to  be 
picked  up  around  a  man's  fireside,  moderate  means,  con- 
ducing as  they  do  to  a  home  life,  would  point  more  certainly 
to  these  than  all  the  splendor  of  grand  receptions.  If  I 
were,  say,  a  village  doctor,  a  schoolmaster ;  if  I  were  able 
to  eke  out  subsistence  in  some  occupation,  whose  pursuit 
might  place  me  sufficiently  favorably  in  her  eyes.  I  don't 
like  grocery,  for  instance,  or  even  "dry  goods,"  but  some- 
thing —  It 's  no  fault  of  mine  if  the  English  language  be 
cramped  and  limited,  and  that  I  must  employ  the  odious  word 
"  genteel,"  but  it  conveys,  in  a  fashion,  all  that  I  aim  at. 

I  began  to  think  how  this  was  to  be  done.  I  might  return 
to  my  own  country,  go  back  to  Dublin,  and  become  Potts 
and  Son,  —  at  least  son !  A  very  horrid  thought  and  very 
hard  to  adopt. 

I  might  take  a  German  degree  in  physic,  and  become  an 
English  doctor,  say  at  Baden,  Ems,  Geneva,  or  some  other 
resort  of  my  countrymen  on  the  Continent.  I  might  give 
lectures,  I  scarcely  well  knew  on  what,  still  less  to  whom ; 
or  I  could  start  as  Professor  Potts,  and  instruct  foreigners 
in  Shakspeare.  There  were  at  least  "three  courses"  open 
to  me ;  and  to  consider  them  the  better,  I  filled  my  pipe,  and 
strolled  off  the  high-road  into  a  shady  copse  of  fine  beech- 
trees,  at  the  foot  of  one  of  which,  and  close  to  a  clear  little 
rivulet,  I  threw  myself  at  full  length,  and  thus,  like  Tityriis, 
enjoyed  the  leafy  shade,  making  my  meerschaum  do  duty 
for  the  shepherd's  reed. 

I  had  not  been  long  thus,  when  I  heard  the  footsteps  of 
some  persons  on  the  road,  and  shortly  after,  the  sound  dis- 
continuing, I  judged  that  they  must  have  crossed  into  the 
sward  beneath  the  wood.  As  I  listened  I  detected  voices, 
and  the  next  moment  two  figures  emerged  from  the  cover 
and  stood  before  me :  they  were  Vaterchen  and  Tintefleck. 


246  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"  Sit  down,"  said  I,  pointing  to  each  in  turn  to  take  a 
place  at  either  side  of  me.  They  had,  it  is  true,  been  the 
cause  of  the  great  calamity  of  my  life,  but  in  no  sense  was 
the  fault  theirs,  and  I  wished  to  show  that  I  was  generous 
and  open-minded.  Vaterchen  acceded  to  my  repeated  invi- 
tation with  a  courteous  humility,  and  seated  himself  at  a 
little  distance  off  ;  but  Tintefleck  threw  herself  on  the  grass, 
and  with  such  a  careless  abandon  that  her  hair  escaped  from 
the  net  that  held  it,  and  fell  in  great  wavy  masses  across  my 
feet. 

"  Ay,"  thought  I,  as  I  looked  at  the  graceful  outlines  of 
her  finely  shaped  figure,  *'  here  is  the  Amaryllis  come  to 
complete  the  tableau ;  only  I  would  wish  fewer  spangles, 
and  a  little  more  simplicity." 

I  saw  that  it  was  necessary  to  reassure  Vaterchen  as  to 
my  perfect  sanity  by  some  explanation  as  to  my  strange 
mode  of  travelling,  and  told  him  briefly,  "  that  it  was  a 
caprice  common  enough  with  my  countrymen  to  assume  the 
knapsack,  and  take  the  road  on  foot ;  that  we  fancied  in 
this  wise  we  obtained  a  nearer  view  of  life,  and  at  least 
gained  companionship  with  many  from  whom  the  accident 
of  station  might  exclude  us."  I  said  this  with  an  artful 
delicacy,  meant  to  imply  that  I  was  pointing  at  a  very  great 
and  valuable  privilege  of  pedestrianism. 

He  smiled  with  a  sad,  a  very  sad  expression  on  his 
features,  "But  in  what  wise,  highly  honored  sir?"  —  he 
addressed  me  always  as  Hoch  Ge-ehrter  Herr,  —  "could 
you  promise  to  yourself  advantage  from  such  associations  as 
these?  I  cannot  believe  you  would  condescend  to  know  us 
simply  to  carry  away  in  memory  the  little  traits  that  must 
needs  distinguish  such  lives  as  ours.  I  would  not  insult  my 
respect  for  you  by  supposing  that  you  corne  amongst  us  to 
note  the  absurd  contrast  between  our  real  wretchedness  and 
our  mock  gayety  ;  and  yet  what  else  is  there  to  gain  ?  What 
can  the  poor  mountebank  teach  you  beyond  this?  " 

"Much,"  said  I,  with  fervor,  as  I  grasped  his  hand, 
and  shook  it  heartily  ;  "  much,  if  you  only  gave  me  this  one 
lesson  that  I  now  listen  to,  and  I  learn  that  a  man's  heart 
can  beat  as  truthfully  under  motley  as  under  the  embroidered 
coat  of  a  minister.  The  man  who  speaks  as  yon  do,  can 
teach  me  much." 


ON  FOOT  AND  IN  LOW  COMPANY.  247 

He  gave  a  short  but  heavy  sigh,  and  turned  away  his 
head.  He  arose  after  a  few  minutes,  and,  going  gently 
across  the  grass,  spread  his  handkerchief  over  the  head  and 
face  of  the  girl,  who  had  at  once  fallen  into  a  deep  sleep. 

''Poor  thing,"  muttered  he,  "it  is  well  she  can  sleep! 
She  has  eaten  nothing  to-day  !  " 

"But,  surely,"  said  I,  "there  is  some  village,  or  some 
wayside  inn  near  this  —  '* 

"  Yes,  there  is  the  '  Eckstein,*  a  little  public  about  two 
miles  further ;  but  we  did  n't  care  to  reach  it  before  nightfall. 
It  is  so  painful  to  pass  many  hours  in  a  place  and  never  call 
for  anything ;  one  is  ill-looked  on,  and  uncomfortable  from 
it ;  and  as  we  have  only  what  would  pay  for  our  supper  and 
lodging,  we  thought  we  *d  wear  away  the  noon  in  the  forest 
here,  and  arrive  at  the  inn  by  close  of  day." 

"Let  me  be  your  travelling-companion  for  to-day,"  said 
I,  "  and  let  us  push  forward  and  have  our  dinner  together. 
Yes,  yes,  there  is  far  less  of  condescension  in  the  offer  than 
you  suspect.  I  am  neither  great  nor  milor,  I  am  one  of  a 
class  like  your  own,  Vaterchen,  and  what  I  do  for  you  to- 
day some  one  else  will  as  probably  do  for  me  to-morrow." 

Say  what  I  could,  the  old  man  would  persist  in  believing 
that  this  was  only  another  of  those  eccentricities  for  which 
Englishmen  are  famed  ;  and  though,  with  the  tact  of  a  native 
good  breeding,  he  showed  no  persistence  in  opposition,  I 
saw  plainly  enough  that  he  was  unconvinced  by  all  my 
arguments. 

While  the  girl  slept,  I  asked  him  how  he  chanced  upon  the 
choice  of  his  present  mode  of  life,  since  there  were  many 
things  in  his  tone  and  manner  that  struck  me  as  strangely 
unlike  what  I  should  have  ascribed  to  his  order. 

"  It  is  a  very  short  story,"  said  he ;  "  five  minutes  will  tell 
it,  otherwise  I  might  scruple  to  impose  on  your  patience. 
It  was  thus  I  became  what  you  see  me." 

Short  as  the  narrative  was,  I  must  keep  it  for  another 
page. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

vaterchen's  narrative. 

I  GIVE  the  old  man's  stoi-y,  as  nearly  as  I  can,  the  way  he 
told  it. 

"  There  is  a  little  village  on  the  Lago  di  Guarda,  called 
Caprini.  My  family  had  lived  there  for  some  generations. 
We  had  a  little  wine-shop,  and  though  not  a  very  pretentious 
one,  it  was  the  best  in  the  place,  and  much  frequented  by 
the  inhabitants.  My  father  was  in  considerable  repute 
while  he  lived ;  he  was  twice  named  Syndic  of  Caprini,  and 
I  myself  once  held  that  dignity.  You  may  not  know,  per- 
haps, that  the  office  is  one  filled  at  the  choice  of  the  towns- 
folk, and  not  nominated  by  the  Government.  Still  the 
crown  has  its  influence  in  the  selection,  and  likes  well  to 
see  one  of  its  own  partisans  in  power,  and,  when  a  popular 
candidate  does  succeed  against  their  will,  the  Government 
officials  take  good  care  to  make  his  berth  as  uncomfortable 
as  they  can.  These  are  small  questions  of  politics  to  ask 
you  to  follow,  but  they  were  our  great  ones ;  and  we  were 
as  ardent  and  excited  and  eager  about  the  choice  of  our 
little  local  Governor  as  though  he  wielded  real  power  in  a 
great  state. 

''When  I  obtained  the  syndicate,  my  great  ambition  was 
to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  my  father,  old  Gustave  Gamerra, 
who  had  left  behind  him  a  great  name  as  the  assertor  of 
popular  rights,  and  who  had  never  bated  the  very  least  privi- 
lege that  pertained  to  his  native  village.  I  did  my  best  — 
not  very  discreetly,  perhaps  —  for  my  own  sake,  but  I  held 
my  head  high  against  all  imperial  and  royal  officials,  and  I 
taught  them  to  feel  that  there  was  at  least  one  popular  insti- 
tution in  the  land  that  no  exercise  of  tyranny  could  assail. 
I  was  over-zealous  about  all  our  rights.     I  raked  up  out  of 


VATERCHEN'S  NARRATIVE.  249 

old  archives  traces  of  privileges  that  we  once  possessed  and 
had  never  formally  surrendered;  I  discovered  concessions 
that  had  been  made  to  us  of  which  we  had  never  reaped  the 
profit;  and  I  was,  so  to  say,  ever  at  war  with  the  authorities, 
who  were  frank  enough  to  say  that  when  my  two  years  of 
office  expired  they  meant  to  give  me  some  wholesome  lessons 
about  obedience. 

"They  were  as  good  as  their  word.  I  had  no  sooner 
descended  to  a  private  station  than  I  was  made  to  feel  all 
the  severities  of  their  displeasure.  They  took  away  my 
license  to  sell  salt  and  tobacco,  and  thereby  fully  one  half  of 
my  little  income;  they  tried  to  withdraw  my  privilege  to 
sell  wine,  but  this  came  from  the  municipality,  and  they 
could  not  touch  it.  Upon  information  that  they  had 
suborned,  they  twice  visited  my  house  to  search  for  sedi- 
tious papers,  and,  finally,  they  made  me  such  a  mark  of 
their  enmity  that  the  timid  of  the  townsfolk  were  afraid  to 
be  seen  with  me,  and  gradually  dropped  my  acquaintance. 
This  preyed  upon  me  most  of  all.  I  was  all  my  life  of  a 
social  habit ;  I  delighted  to  gather  my  friends  around  me, 
or  to  go  and  visit  them,  and  to  find  myself,  as  I  was  grow- 
ing old,  growing  friendless  too,  was  a  great  blow. 

"I  was  a  widower,  and  had  none  but  an  only  daughter." 

When  he  had  reached  thus  far,  his  voice  failed  him,  and, 
after  an  effort  or  two,  he  could  not  continue,  and  turned 
away  his  head  and  buried  it  in  his  hands.  Full  ten  min- 
utes elapsed  before  he  resumed,  which  he  did  with  a  hard, 
firm  tone,  as  though  resolved  not  to  be  conquered  by  his 
emotion. 

"The  cholera  was  dreadfully  severe  all  through  the  Italian 
Tyrol;  it  swept  from  Venice  to  Milan,  and  never  missed 
even  the  mountain  villages,  far  away  up  the  Alps.  In  our 
little  hamlet  we  lost  one  hundred  and  eighteen  souls,  and 
my  Gretchen  was  one  of  them. 

"We  had  all  grown  to  be  very  hard-hearted  to  each  other; 
misfortune  was  at  each  man's  door,  and  he  had  no  heart  to 
spare  for  a  neighbor's  grief;  and  yet  such  was  the  sorrow 
for  her,  that  they  came,  in  all  this  suffering  and  desolation, 
to  try  and  comfort  and  keep  me  up,  and  though  it  was  a 
time  when  all  such  cares  were  forgotten,  the  young  people 


^50  ^  DAY'S  RIDE. 

went  and  laid  fresh  flowers  over  her  grave  every  morning. 
Well,  that  was  very  kind  of  them,  and  made  me  weep  heart- 
ily; and,  in  weeping,  my  heart  softened,  and  I  got  to  feel 
that  God  knew  what  was  best  for  all  of  us,  and  that,  may- 
hap, he  had  taken  her  away  to  spare  her  greater  sorrow 
hereafter,  and  left  me  to  learn  that  I  should  pray  to  go  to 
her.  She  had  only  been  in  the  earth  eight  days,  and  I  was 
sitting  alone  in  my  solitary  house,  for  I  could  not  bear  to 
open  the  shop,  and  began  to  think  that  I  'd  never  have  the 
courage  to  do  so  again,  but  would  go  away  and  try  some 
other  place  and  some  other  means  of  livelihood, —  it  was 
while  thinking  thus,  a  sharp,  loud  knock  came  to  the  door, 
and  I  arose  rather  angrily,  to  answer  it. 

"It  was  a  sergeant  of  an  infantry  regiment,  whose  detach- 
ment was  on  march  for  Peschiera;  there  were  troubles  down 
there,  and  the  Government  had  to  send  off  three  regiments 
in  all  haste  from  Vienna  to  suppress  them.  The  sergeant 
was  a  Bohemian,  and  his  regiment  the  Kinsky.  He  was  a 
rough,  coarse  fellow,  very  full  of  his  authority,  despising  all 
villagers,  and  holding  Italians  in  especial  contempt.  He 
came  to  order  me  to  prepare  rations  and  room  for  six  sol- 
diers, who  were  to  arrive  that  evening.  I  answered,  boldly, 
that  I  would  not.  I  had  served  the  office  of  syndic  in  the 
town,  and  was  thus  forever  exempt  from  the  '  billet,'  and  I 
led  him  into  my  little  sitting-room,  and  showed  him  my 
*  brevet,*  framed  and  glazed,  over  the  chimney.  He  laughed 
heartily  at  my  little  remonstrance,  coolly  turned  the  '  brevet ' 
with  its  face  to  the  wall,  and  said,  — 

"  '  If  you  don't  want  twelve  of  us  instead  of  six,  you  '11 
keep  your  tongue  quiet,  and  give  us  a  stoup  of  your  best 
wine.' 

"  I  did  not  wait  to  answer  him,  but  seized  my  hat  and 
hurried  away  to  the  Platz  Commandant.  He  was  an  old 
enemy  of  mine,  but  I  could  not  help  it;  his  was  the  only 
authority  I  could  appeal  to,  and  he  was  bound  to  do  me 
justice.  When  I  reached  the  bureau,  it  was  so  crowded 
with  soldiers  and  townsfolk,  some  seeking  for  billets,  some 
insisting  on  their  claim  to  be  free,  that  I  could  not  get 
past  the  door,  and,  after  an  hour's  waiting,  I  was  fain  to 
give  up  the  attempt,  and  turned  back  home  again,  deter- 


VATERCHEN'S  NARRATIVE.  251 

mined  to  make  my  statement  in  writing,  which,  after  all, 
might  have  been  the  most  fitting. 

"  I  found  my  doors  wide  open  when  I  got  there,  and  my 
shop  crowded  with  soldiers,  who,  either  seated  on  the  coun- 
ter or  squatting  on  their  knapsacks,  had  helped  themselves 
freely  to  my  wine,  even  to  raising  the  top  of  an  old  cask, 
and  drinking  it  in  large  cups  from  the  barrel,  which  they 
handed  liberally  to  their  comrades  as  they  passed. 

"My  heart  was  too  full  to  care  much  for  the  loss,  though 
the  insult  pressed  me  sorely,  and,  pushing  my  way  through, 
I  gained  the  inner  room  to  find  it  crowded  like  the  shop. 
All  was  in  disorder  and  confusion.  The  old  musket  my 
father  had  carried  for  many  a  year,  and  which  had  hung 
over  the  chimney  as  an  heirloom,  lay  smashed  in  fragments 
on  the  floor;  some  wanton  fellow  had  run  his  bayonet 
thi-ough  my  '  brevet '  as  syndic,  and  hung  it  up  in  derision 
as  a  banner ;  and  one  —  he  was  a  corporal  —  had  taken  down 
the  wreath  of  white  roses  that  lay  on  Gretchen's  coffin  till  it 
was  laid  in  the  earth,  and  placed  it  on  his  head.  When  I 
saw  this,  my  senses  left  me;  I  gave  a  wild  shriek,  and 
dashed  both  my  hands  in  his  face.  I  tried  to  strangle  him; 
I  would  have  torn  him  with  my  teeth  had  they  not  dragged 
me  off  and  dashed  me  on  the  ground,  where  they  trampled 
on  me,  and  beat  me,  and  then  carried  me  away  to  prison. 

''I  was  four  days  in  prison  before  I  was  brought  up  to  be 
examined.  I  did  not  know  whether  it  had  been  four  or 
forty,  for  my  senses  had  left  me  and  I  was  mad;  perhaps 
it  was  the  cold  dark  cell  and  the  silence  restored  me,  but  I 
came  out  calm  and  collected.  I  remembered  everything  to 
the  smallest  incident. 

''The  soldiers  were  heard  first;  they  agreed  in  everything, 
and  their  story  had  all  the  air  of  truth  about  it.  They 
owned  they  had  taken  my  wine,  but  said  that  the  regiment 
was  ready  and  willing  to  pay  for  it  so  soon  as  I  came  back, 
and  that  all  the  rest  they  had  done  were  only  the  usual 
follies  of  troops  on  a  march.  .  I  began  by  claiming  my 
exemption  as  a  syndic,  but  was  stopped  at  once  by  being 
told  that  my  claim  had  never  been  submitted  to  the  authori- 
ties, and  that  in  my  outrage  on  the  imperial  force  I  had  for- 
feited  all   consideration  on   that   score.     My  offence  was 


252  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

easily  proven.  I  did  not  deny  it,  and  I  was  lectured  for 
nigh  an  hour  on  the  enormity  of  my  crime,  and  then  sen- 
tenced to  pay  a  fine  of  a  thousand  zwanzigers  to  the  Em- 
peror, and  to  receive  four-and-twenty  blows  with  the  stick. 

*  It  should  have  been  eight-and-forty  but  for  my  age,'  he 
said. 

"On  the  same  stool  where  I  sat  to  hear  my  sentence  was 
a  circus  man,  waiting  the  Platz  Commandant's  leave  to  give 
some  representation  in  the  village.  I  knew  him  from  his 
dress,  but  had  never  spoken  to  him  nor  he  to  me;  just,  how- 
ever, as  the  Commandant  had  delivered  the  words  of  my  con- 
demnation, he  turned  to  look  at  me,  —  mayhap  to  see  how  I 
bore  up  under  my  misfortune.  I  saw  his  glance,  and  I  did 
my  best  to  sustain  it.  I  wanted  to  bear  myself  manfully 
throughout,  and  not  to  let  any  one  know  my  heart  was 
broken,  which  I  felt  it  was.  The  struggle  was,  perhaps, 
more  than  I  was  able  for,  and,  while  the  tears  gushed  out 
and  ran  down  my  cheeks,  I  burst  out  laughing,  and  laughed 
away  fit  after  fit,  making  the  most  terrible  faces  all  the 
while;  so  outrageously  droll  were  my  convulsions,  that 
every  one  around  laughed  too,  and  there  was  the  whole 
court  screaming  madly  with  the  same  impulse,  and  unable  to 
control  it. 

"  '  Take  the  fool  away! '  cried  the  Commandant,  at  last, 
'  and  bring  him  to  reason  with  a  hazel  rod.'  And  they  car- 
ried me  off,  and  I  was  flogged. 

"It  was  about  a  week  after  I  was  down  near  Commachio. 
I  don't  know  how  I  got  there,  but  I  was  in  rags,  and  had  no 
money,    and   the   circus   people   came   past   and    saw   me. 

*  There's  the  old  fellow  that  nearly  killed  us  with  his  droll 
face,'  said  the  chief.  '  I  '11  give  you  two  zwanzigers  a  day, 
my  man,  if  you  '11  only  give  us  a  few  grins  like  that  every 
evening.     Is  it  a  bargain  ?  ' 

"I  laughed.  I  could  not  keep  now  from  laughing  at 
everything,  and  the  bargain  was  made,  and  I  was  a  clown 
from  that  hour.  They  taught  me  a  few  easy  tricks  to  help 
me  in  my  trade,  but  it  is  my  face  that  they  care  for,  —  none 
can  see  it  unmoved." 

He  turned  on  me  as  he  spoke  with  a  fearful  contortion  of 
countenance,   but,   moved  by  his  story,   and   full  only  of 


VATERCHEN'S  NARRATIVE.  253 

what  I   had  been  listening  to,   I  turned   away  and   shed 
tears. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  meditatively,  "many  a  happy  heart  is 
kindled  at  the  fire  that  is  consuming  another.  As  for 
myself,  both  joy  and  sorrow  are  dead  within  me.  I  am 
without  hope,  and,  stranger  still,  without  fear." 

"But  you  are  not  without  benevolence,"  said  I,  as  I 
looked  towards  the  sleeping  girl. 

"She  was  so  like  Gretchen,"  said  he;  and  he'  bent  down 
his  head  and  sobbed  bitterly. 

I  would  have  asked  him  some  questions  about  her  if  I 
dared,  but  I  felt  so  rebuked  by  the  sorrow  of  the  old  man, 
that  my  curiosity  seemed  almost  unfeeling. 

"She  came  amongst  us  a  mere  child,"  said  he,  "and 
speedily  attached  herself  to  me.  I  contrived  to  learn  enough  ^ 
of  her  dialect  to  understand  and  talk  to  her,  and  at  last  she 
began  to  regard  me  as  a  father,  and  even  called  me  such. 
It  was  a  long  time  before  I  could  bear  this.  Every  time  I 
heard  the  word  my  grief  would  burst  out  afresh ;  but  what 
won't  time  do?     I  have  come  to  like  it  now." 

"And  is  she  good  and  gentle  and  affectionate?"  asked  I. 

"She  is  far  too  good  and  true-hearted  to  be  in  such  com- 
pany as  ours.  Would  that  some  rich  person,  —  it  should 
be  a  lady,  —  kind  and  gentle  and  compassionate,  could  see 
her  and  take  her  away  from  such  associates,  and  this  life  of 
shame,  ere  it  be  too  late !  If  I  have  a  sorrow  left  me  now, 
it  is  for  her." 

I  was  silent;  for  though  the  wish  only  seemed  fair  and 
natural  enough  on  his  part,  I  could  not  help  thinking  how 
Improbable  such  an  incident  would  prove. 

"She  would  repay  it  all,"  said  he.  "If  ever  there  was  a 
nature  rich  in  great  gifts,  it  is  hers.  She  can  learn  what- 
ever she  will,  and  for  a  word  of  kindness  she  would  hold 
her  hand  in  the  fire  for  you.  Hush!  "  whispered  he,  "she  is 
stirring.  What  is  it,  darling  ?  "  said  he,  creeping  close  to 
her,  as  she  lay,  throwing  her  arms  wildly  open,  but  not 
removing  the  handkerchief  from  her  face. 

She  muttered  something  hurriedly,  and  then  burst  into  a 
laugh  so  joyous  and  so  catching,  it  was  impossible  to  re- 
frain from  joining  in  it. 


254  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

She  threw  back  the  kerchief  at  once  and  started  to  her 
knees,  gazing  steadfastly,  almost  sternly,  at  me.  I  saw 
that  the  old  man  comprehended  the  inquiry  of  her  glance, 
and  as  quickly  whispered  a  few  words  in  her  ear.  She  lis- 
tened till  he  had  done,  and  then,  springing  towards  me,  she 
caught  my  hand  and  kissed  it. 

I  suspect  he  must  have  rebuked  the  ardor  of  her  movement, 
for  she  hung  her  head  despondingly,  and  turned  away  from 
us  both. 

"Now  for  the  road  once  more,"  said  Vaterchen,  "for  if 
we  stay  much  longer  here,  we  shall  have  the  forest  flies, 
which  are  always  worse  towards  evening." 

It  was  not  without  great  difficulty  I  could  prevent  his  car- 
rying my  knapsack  for  me,  and  even  the  girl  herself  would 
gladly  have  borne  some  of  my  load.  At  last,  however,  we 
set  forth,  Tintefleck  lightening  the  way  with  a  merry  can- 
zonette  that  had  the  time  of  a  quickstep. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

A   GENIUS   FOR   CARICATURE. 

What  a  pleasant  little  dinner  we  had  that  day !  It  was  laid 
out  in  a  little  summer-house  of  the  inn-garden.  All  over- 
grown with  a  fine  old  fig-tree,  through  whose  leaves  the 
summer  wind  played  deliciously,  while  a  tiny  rivulet  rippled 
close  by,  and  served  to  cool  our  "Achten- thaler,"  —  an 
amount  of  luxury  that  made  Tintefleck  quite  wild  with 
laughter. 

"Is  it  cold  enough?"  she  asked  archly,  in  her  peasant 
dialect,  each  time  the  old  man  laid  down  his  glass. 

As  I  came  gradually  to  pick  up  the  occasional  meaning  of 
her  words,  —  a  process  which  her  expressive  pantomime 
greatly  aided,  —  I  was  struck  by  the  marvellous  acuteness 
of  a  mind  so  totally  without  culture,  and  I  could  not  help 
asking  Vaterchen  why  he  had  never  attempted  to  instruct 
her. 

*'What  can  I  do?"  said  he,  despondently;  ''there  are  no 
books  in  the  only  language  she  knows,  and  the  only  lan- 
guage she  will  condescend  to  speak.  She  can  understand 
Italian,  and  I  have  read  stories  for  her,  and  sonnets,  too, 
out  of  Leopardi ;  but  though  she  will  listen  in  all  eagerness 
till  they  are  finished,  no  sooner  over  than  she  breaks  out 
into  some  wild  Calabrian  song,  and  asks  me  is  it  not  worth 
all  the  fine  things  I  have  been  giving  her,  thrice  told." 

''Could  you  not  teach  her  to  write?  " 

"I  tried  that.  I  bought  a  slate,  and  I  made  a  bargain 
with  her  that  she  should  have  a  scarlet  knot  for  her  hair 
when  she  could  ask  me  for  it  in  written  words.  Well,  all 
seemed  to  go  on  prosperously  for  a  time;  we  had  got 
through  half  the  alphabet  very  successfully,  till  we  came  to 
the  letter  H.     This  made  her  laugh  immediately,  it  was  so 


256  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

like  a  scaffold  we  had  in  the  circus  for  certain  exercises ; 
and  no  sooner  had  I  marked  down  the  letter,  than  she 
snatched  the  pencil  from  me,  and  drew  the  figure  of  a  man 
on  each  bar  of  the  letter.  From  that  hour  forth,  as  though 
her  wayward  humor  had  been  only  imprisoned,  she  burst 
forth  into  every  imaginable  absurdity  at  our  lessons. 
Every  ridiculous  event  of  our  daily  life  she  drew,  and  with 
a  rapidity  almost  incredible.  I  was  not  very  apt,  as  you 
may  imagine,  in  acquiring  the  few  accomplishments  they 
thought  to  give  me,  and  she  caricatured  me  under  all  my 
difficulties." 

''/iSi,  si,"  broke  she  in  at  this;  for,  with  a  wonderful 
acuteness,  she  could  trace  something  of  a  speaker's  meaning 
where  every  word  was  unknown  to  her.  As  she  spoke,  she 
arose,  and  fled  down  the  garden  at  top  speed. 

*'Why  has  she  gone?  Is  she  displeased  at  your  telling 
me  all  these  things  about  her?  "  asked  I. 

"Scarcely  that;  she  loves  to  be  noticed.  Nothing  really 
seems  to  pain  her  so  much  as  when  she  is  passed  over 
unremarked.  When  such  an  event  would  occur  in  the  circus, 
I  have  seen  her  sob  through  her  sleep  all  the  night  after.  I 
half  suspect  now  she  is  piqued  at  the  little  notice  you  have 
bestowed  upon  her.  All  the  better  if  it  be  so." 
"But  here  she  comes  again." 

With  the  same  speed  she  now  came  back  to  us,  holding 
her  slate  over  her  head,  and  showing  that  she  rightly  inter- 
preted what  the  old  man  had  said  of  her. 

"  Now  for  my  turn !  "  said  Vaterchen,  with  a  smile.  "  She 
is  never  weary  of  drawing  me  in  every  absurd  and  impos- 
sible posture." 

"What  is  it  to  be,  Tintefleck ?  "  asked  he.  "  How  am  I  to 
figure  this  time?" 

She  shook  her  head  without  replying,  and,  making  a  sign 
that  she  was  not  to  be  questioned  or  interrupted,  she  nestled 
down  at  the  foot  of  the  fig-tree,  and  began  to  draw. 

The  old  man  now  drew  near  me,  and  proceeded  to  give  me 
further  details  of  her  strange  temper  and  ways.  I  could 
mark  that  throughout  all  he  said  a  tone  of  intense  anxiety 
and  care  prevailed,  and  that  he  felt  her  disposition  was 
exactly  that  which  exposed  her  to  the  greatest  perils  for  her 


A  GENIUS  FOR  CARICATURE.  257 

future.  There  was  a  young  artist  who  used  to  follow  her 
through  all  the  South  Tyrol,  affecting  to  be  madly  in  love 
with  her,  but  of  whose  sincerity  and  honor  Vaterchen  pro- 
fessed to  have  great  misgivings.  He  gave  her  lessons  in 
drawing,  and,  what  was  less  to  be  liked,  he  made  several 
studies  of  herself.  "The  artless  way,"  said  the  old  man, 
"she  would  come  and  repeat  to  me  all  his  raptures  about  her, 
was  at  first  a  sort  of  comfort  to  me.  I  felt  reassured  by  her 
confidence,  and  also  by  the  little  impression  his  praises 
seemed  to  make,  but  I  saw  later  on  that  I  was  mistaken. 
She  grew  each  day  more  covetous  of  these  flatteries,  and  it 
was  no  longer  laughingly,  but  in  earnest  seriousness,  she 
would  tell  me  that  the  '  Fornarina '  in  some  gallery  had  not 
such  eyes  as  hers,  and  that  some  great  statue  that  all  the 
world  admired  was  far  inferior  to  her  in  shape.  If  I  had 
dared  to  rebuke  her  vanity,  or  to  ridicule  her  pretensions,  all 
my  influence  would  have  been  gone  forever.  She  would 
have  left  us,  gone  who  knows  whither,  and  been  lost,  so 
that  I  had  nothing  for  it  but  to  seem  to  credit  all  she  said 
and  yet  hold  the  matter  lightly,  and  I  said  beauty  had  no 
value  except  when  associated  with  rank  and  station.  If 
queens  and  princesses  be  handsome,  they  are  more  fitted  to 
adorn  this  high  estate,  but  for  humble  folk  it  is  as  great  a 
mockery  as  these  tinsel  gems  we  wear  in  the  circus. 

"  '  Max  says  not,'  said  she  to  me  one  evening,  after  one 
of  my  usual  lectures.  '  Max  says,  there  are  queens  would 
give  their  coronets  to  have  my  hair;  ay,  or  even  one  of  the 
dimples  in  my  cheek.* 

"  'Max  is  a  villain,'  said  I,  before  I  could  control  my 
words. 

"  '  Max  is  a  vero  signor  !  '  said  she,  haughtily,  *  and  not 
like  one  of  us ;  and  more,  too,  I  '11  go  and  tell  him  what  you 
have  called  him.'  She  bounded  away  from  me  at  this,  and 
I  saw  her  no  more  till  nightfall. 

"'What  has  happened  to  you,  poor  child!'  said  I,  as 
I  saw  her  lying  on  the  floor  of  her  room,  her  forehead 
bleeding,  and  her  dress  all  draggled  and  torn.  She  would 
not  speak  to  me  for  a  long  while,  but  by  much  entreating 
and  caressing  I  won  upon  her  to  tell  me  what  had  befallen 
her.     She  had  gone  to  the  top  of  the  '  Glucksburg,'  and 

17 


258  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

thrown  herself  down.  It  was  a  fearful  height,  and  only 
was  she  saved  by  being  caught  by  the  brambles  and  tangled 
foliage  of  the  cliff ;  and  all  this  for  '  one  harsh  word  of  mine, ' 
she  said.  But  I  knew  better;  the  struggle  was  deeper  in 
her  heart  than  she  was  aware  of,  and  Max  had  gone  suddenly 
away,  and  we  saw  no  more  of  him." 

"Did  she  grieve  after  him?" 

"  I  scarcely  can  say  she  did.  She  fretted,  but  I  think  it 
was  for  her  own  loneliness,  and  the  want  of  that  daily  flattery 
she  had  grown  so  fond  of.  She  became  overbearing,  and 
even  insolent,  too,  with  all  her  equals,  and  though  for  many 
a  day  she  had  been  the  spoiled  child  of  the  troop,  many 
began  to  weary  of  her  waywardness.  I  don't  know  how  all 
this  might  have  turned  out,  when,  just  as  suddenly,  she 
changed  and  became  everything  that  she  used  to  be." 

When  the  old  man  had  got  thus  far,  the  girl  arose,  and, 
without  saying  a  word,  laid  the  slate  before  us.  Vaterchen, 
not  very  quick-sighted,  could  not  at  once  understand  the 
picture,  but  I  caught  it  at  once,  and  laughed  immoderately. 
She  had  taken  the  scene  where  T  had  presented  Vaterchen 
and  herself  to  the  ladies  at  the  tea-table,  and  with  an  intense 
humor,  sketched  all  the  varying  emotions  of  the  incident.' 
The  offended  dignity  of  the  old  lady,  the  surprise  and  mor- 
tification of  Miss  Herbert,  and  my  own  unconscious  preten- 
sion as  I  pointed  to  the  *' friends"  who  accompanied  me, 
were  drawn  with  the  spirit  of  high  caricature.  Nor  did  she 
spare  Vaterchen  or  herself;  they  were  drawn,  perhaps,  with 
a  more  exaggerated  satire  than  all  the  rest. 

The  old  man  no  sooner  comprehended  the  subject  than  he 
drew  his  hand  across  it,  and  turned  to  her  with  words  of 
anger  and  reproach.  I  meant,  of  course,  to  interfere  in  her 
behalf,  but  it  was  needless ;  she  fled,  laughing,  into  the  gar- 
den, and  before  many  minutes  were  over,  we  heard  her  merry 
voice,  with  the  tinkle  of  a  guitar  to  assist  it. 

"There  it  is,"  said  Vaterchen,  moodily.  "What  are 
you  to  do  with  a  temperament  like  that?  " 

That  was  a  question  I  was  in  no  wise  prepared  to  answer. 
Tinte fleck's  temperament  seemed  to  be  the  very  converse  of 
my  own.  I  was  over  eager  to  plan  out  everything  in  life ; 
she  appeared  to  be  just  as  impulsively  bent  on  risking  all. 


A  GENIUS  FOR  CARICATURE.  259 

My  head  was  always  calculating  eventualities;  hers,  it 
struck  me,  never  worried  itself  about  difficulties  till  in  the 
midst  of  them.  Now,  Jean  Paul  tells  us  that  when  a  man 
detects  any  exaggerated  bias  in  his  character,  instead  of 
endeavoring,  by  daily  watching,  to  correct  it,  he  will  be 
far  more  successful  if  he  ally  himself  with  some  one  of  a 
diametrically  opposite  humor.  If  he  be  rash,  for  instance, 
let  him  seek  companionship  with  the  sluggish.  If  his  ten- 
dency bear  to  over-imagination,  let  him  frequent  the  society 
of  realists.  Why,  therefore,  should  not  I  and  Tintefleck  be 
mutually  beneficial?  Take  the  two  different  kinds  of  wood 
in  a  bow:  one  will  supply  resistance,  the  other  flexibility. 
It  was  a  pleasant  notion,  and  I  resolved  to  test  it. 

''Vaterchen,"  said  I,  ''call  me  to-morrow,  when  you  get 
ready  for  the  road.  I  will  keep  you  company  as  far  as 
Constance." 

"Ah,  sir,"  said  he,  with  a  sigh,  "you  will  be  well  weary 
of  us  before  half  the  journey  is  over;  but  you  shall  be 
obeyed." 


CHAFIER  XXXII. 

I   BELIEVE    MYSELF    OP   MY    PURSE. 

Next  morning,  just  as  day  was  breaking,  we  set  out  on 
foot  on  our  road  to  Constance.  There  was  a  pinkish-gray 
streak  of  light  on  the  horizon,  sure  sign  of  a  fine  day,  and 
the  bright  stars  twinkled  still  in  the  clear  half-sombre  sky, 
'and  all  was  calm  and  noiseless,  —  nothing  to  be  heard  but  the 
tramp  of  our  own  feet  on  the  hard  causeway. 

With  the  cowardly  caution  of  one  who  feels  the  water  with 
his  foot  before  he  springs  in  to  swim,  I  was  glad  that  I 
made  my  first  experiences  of  companionship  with  these 
humble  friends  while  it  was  yet  dark  and  none  could  see 
us.  The  old  leaven  of  snobbery  was  unsubdued  in  my 
heart,  and,  as  I  turned  to  look  at  poor  Vaterchen  and  then 
at  the  tinsel  finery  of  Catinka,  I  bethought  me  of  the  little 
consideration  the  world  extends  to  such  as  these  and  their 
belongings.  '*  Vagabonds  all !  "  would  say  some  rich  banker, 
as  he  rolled  by  in  his  massive  travelling-carriage,  creaking 
with  imperials  and  jingling  with  bells.  "Vagabonds  all!" 
would  mutter  the  Jew  pedler,  as  he  looked  down  from  the 
banquette  of  the  diligence.  How  slight  is  the  sympathy  of 
the  realist  for  the  poor  creature  whose  life-labor  is  to  please ! 
How  prone  to  regard  him  as  useless,  or,  even  worse,  forget- 
ting the  while  how  a  wiser  than  he  has  made  many  things 
in  this  beautiful  world  of  ours  that  they  should  merely 
minister  to  enjoyment,  gladden  the  eye  and  ear,  and  make 
our  pilgrimage  less  weary !  Where  would  be  the  crimson 
jay,  where  the  scarlet  bustard,  where  the  gorgeous  peacock 
with  the  nosegay  on  his  tail,  where  the  rose  and  the  honey- 
suckle and  the  purple  foxglove  mingling  with  the  wild 
thorn  in  our  hedgerows,  if  the  universe  were  of  their  creation, 
and   this  great  globe  but  one  big  workshop?    You  never 


I  RELIEVE  MYSELF  OF  MY  PURSE.  261 

insist  that  the  daisy  and  the  daffodil  should  be  pot-herbs ; 
and  why  are  there  not  to  be  wild  flowers  in  humanity  as 
well  as  in  the  fields?  Is  it  not  a  great  pride  to  you  who 
live  under  a  bell-glass,  nurtured  and  cared  for,  and  with 
your  name  attached  to  a  cleft-stick  at  your  side,  —  is  it  not 
a  great  pride  to  know  that  you  are  not  like  one  of  us  poor 
dog-roses?  Be  satisfied,  then,  with  that  glory;  we  only 
ask  to  live !  Shame  on  me  for  that  "  only  "  !  As  if  there 
could  be  anything  more  delightful  than  life.  Life,  with 
all  its  capacities  for  love  and  friendship  and  heroism  and 
self-devotion,  for  generous  actions  and  noble  aspirations ! 
Life  to  feel  life,  to  know  that  we  are  in  a  sphere  specially 
constructed  for  the  exercise  of  our  senses  and  the  play  of 
our  faculties,  free  to  choose  the  road  we  would  take,  and 
with  a  glorious  reward  if  our  choice  be  the  right  one! 

"'Vagabonds!'  Yes,"  thought  I,  "there  was  once  on 
a  time  such  a  vagabond,  and  he  strolled  along  from  village 
to  village,  making  of  his  flute  a  livelihood,  —  a  poor  per- 
former, too,  he  tells  us  he  was,  but  he  could  touch  the 
hearts  of  these  simple  villagers  with  his  tones  as  he  could 
move  the  hearts  of  thousands  more  learned  than  they  with 
his  marvellous  pathos ;  and  this  vagabond  was  called  Oliver 
Goldsmith."  I  have  no  words  to  say  the  ecstasy  this 
thought  gave  me.  Many  a  proud  traveller  doubtless  swept 
past  the  poor  wayfarer  as  he  went,  dusty  and  footsore,  and 
who  was,  nevertheless,  journeying  onward  to  a  great  im- 
mortality ;  to  be  a  name  remembered  with  blessings  by 
generations  when  the  haughty  man  that  scorned  him  was 
forgotten  forever.  "And  so  now,"  thought  I,  "some 
splendid  Russian  or  some  Saxon  Croesus  will  crash  by  and 
not  be  conscious  that  the  thin  and  weary-looking  youth,  with 
the  girl's  bundle  on  his  stick  and  the  red  umbrella  under  his 
arm,  that  this  is  Potts!  Ay,  sir,  you  fancy  that  to  be 
threadbare  and  footsore  is  to  be  vulgar-minded  and  ignoble, 
and  you  never  so  much  as  suspect  that  the  heart  inside  that 
poor  plaid  waistcoat  is  throbbing  with  ambitions  high  as 
a  Kaiser's,  and  that  the  brain  within  that  battered  Jim  Crow 
is  the  realm  of  thoughts  profound  as  Bacon's,  and  high- 
soaring  as  Milton's." 

If  I  make  my  reader  a  sharer  in  these  musings  of  mine,  it 


262  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

is  because  they  occupied  me  for  some  miles  of  the  way. 
Vaterchen  was  not  talkative,  and  loved  to  smoke  on  unin- 
terruptedly. I  fancy  that,  in  his  way,  he  was  as  great  a 
dreamer  as  myself.  Catinka  would  have  talked  incessantly 
if  any  one  had  listened,  or  could  understand  her.  As  it  was, 
she  recited  legends  and  sang  songs  for  herself,  as  happy  as 
ever  a  blackbird  was  to  listen  to  his  own  melody ;  and  though 
I  paid  no  especial  attention  to  her  music,  still  the  sounds 
floated  through  all  my  thoughts,  bathing  them  with  a  sooth- 
ing flood ;  just  as  the  air  we  breathe  is  often  loaded  with  a 
sweet  and  perfumed  breath  ere  we  know  it.  On  the  whole, 
we  journeyed  along  very  pleasantly ;  and  what  between  the 
fresh  morning  air,  the  brisk  exercise,  and  the  novelty  of  the 
situation,  I  felt  in  a  train  of  spirits  that  made  me  delighted 
with  everything.  "This,  after  all,"  thought  I,  "is  more 
like  the  original  plan  I  sketched  out  for  myself.  This  is  the 
true  mode  to  see  life  and  the  world.  The  student  of  nature 
never  begins  his  studies  with  the  more  complicated  organiza- 
tions ;  he  sets  out  with  what  is  simplest  in  structure,  and 
least  intricate  in  function ;  he  begins  with  the  extreme  link  of 
the  chain;  so,  too,  I  start  with  the  investigation  of  those 
whose  lives  of  petty  cares  and  small  ambitions  must  render 
them  easy  of  appreciation.  This  poor  Mollusca  Vaterchen, 
for  instance,  —  to  see  is  to  know  him ;  and  the  girl,  how 
absurd  to  connect  such  a  guileless  child  of  nature  as  that 
with  those  stereotyped  notions  of  feminine  craft  and  sub- 
tlety !  "  I  then  went  on  to  imagine  some  future  biographer 
of  mine  engaged  on  this  portion  of  my  life,  puzzled  for 
materials,  puzzled  still  more  to  catch  the  clew  to  my  mean- 
ing in  it.  "At  this  time,"  will  he  say,  "Potts,  by  one  of 
those  strange  caprices  which  often  were  the  mainspring  of 
his  actions,  resolved  to  lead  a  gypsy  life.  His  ardent  love 
of  nature,  his  heartfelt  enjoyment  of  scenery,  and,  more  than 
even  these,  a  certain  breadth  and  generosity  of  character, 
disposed  him  to  sympathize  with  those  who  have  few  to  pity 
and  fewer  to  succor  them.  With  these  wild  children  of  the 
roadside  he  lived  for  months,  joyfully  sharing  the  burdens 
they  carried,  and  taking  his  part  in  their  privations.  It  was 
here  he  first  met  Catinka."  I  stopped  at  this  sentence,  and 
T  slowly  repeated  to  myself,  "It  was  here  he  first  met  Ca- 


I  RELIEVE  MYSELF  OF  MY  PURSE.  263 

tinka !  "  "  What  will  he  have  next  to  record?  "  thought  I. 
'•  Is  Potts  now  to  claim  sympathy  as  the  victim  of  a  passion 
that  regarded  not  station,  nor  class,  nor  fortune ;  that  depised 
the  cold  conventionalities  of  a  selfish  world,  and  asked  only 
a  heart  for  a  heart?  Is  he  to  be  remembered  as  the  faithful 
believer  in  his  own  theory,  —  Love,  above  all?  Are  we  to 
hear  of  him  clasping  rapturously  to  his  bosom  the  poor  for- 
lorn girl  ?  "  So  intensely  were  my  feelings  engaged  in  my 
speculations,  that,  at  this  critical  pass,  I  threw  my  arms 
around  Catinka's  neck,  and  kissed  her.  A  rebuke,  not  very 
cruel,  not  in  the  least  angry  or  peevish,  brought  me  quickly 
to  myself ;  and  as  Vaterchen  was  fortunately  in  front  and 
saw  nothing  of  what  passed,  I  speedily  made  my  peace.  I 
do  not  know  how  it  happened,  but  in  that  same  peace-making 
I  had  passed  my  arm  round  her  waist,  and  there  it  remained, 
—  an  army  of  occupation  after  the  treaty  was  signed,  —  and 
we  went  along,  side  by  side,  very  amicably,  very  happily. 

We  are  often  told  that  a  small  competence  —  the  just 
-enough  to  live  on  —  is  the  bane  of  all  enterprise  ;  that  men 
thus  placed  are  removed  from  the  stimulus  of  necessity, 
and  yet  not  lifted  into  the  higher  atmosphere  of  ambitions. 
Exactly  in  the  same  way  do  I  believe  that  equality  is  the 
grave  of  love.  The  passion  thrives  on  difficulty,  and  requires 
sacrifice.  You  must  bid  defiance  to  mankind  in  your  choice, 
or  you  are  a  mere  fortune-hunter.  Show  the  world  the 
blushing  peasant-girl  you  have  made  your  wife,  and  say, 
*'  Yes,  I  have  had  courage  to  do  this."  Or  else  strive  for  a 
princess,  —  a  Russian  princess.  Better,  far  better,  however, 
the  humble-hearted  child  of  nature  and  the  fields,  the  simple, 
trusting,  confiding  girl,  who,  regarding  her  lover  as  a  sort  of 
demi-god,  would,  while  she  clung  to  him  — 

"  You  press  me  so  hard ! "  murmured  Catinka,  half 
rebukingly,  but  with  a  sort  of  pouting  expression  that  be- 
-came  her  marvellously. 

*'  I  was  thinking  of  something  that  interested  me,  dearest,** 
said  I ;  but  I  'm  not  sure  that  I  made  my  meaning  very  clear 
to  her,  and  yet  there  was  a  roguish  look  in  her  black  eye  that 
puzzled  me  greatly.  I  began  to  like  her,  or,  if  you  prefer 
the  phrase,  to  fall  in  love  with  her.  I  knew  it  —  I  felt  it 
just  the  way  that  a  man  who  has  once  had  the  ague  never 


264  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

mistakes  when  he  is  going  to  have  a  return  of  the  fever. 
In  the  same  way  exactly,  did  I  recognize  all  the  premonitory 
symptoms,  —  the  giddiness,  the  shivering,  increased  action  of 
the  heart  —  Halt,  Potts !  and  reflect  a  bit ;  are  you  de- 
scribing love,  or  a  tertian? 

How  will  the  biographer  conduct  himself  here  ?  Whether 
will  he  have  to  say,  "Potts  resisted  manfully  this  fatal  at- 
tachment; had  he  yielded  to  the  seductions  of  this  early 
passion,  it  is  more  than  probable  we  would  never  have  seen 
him  this,  that,  and  t'  other,  nor  would  the  world  have  been 
enriched  with  —  Heaven  knows  what ;  "  or  shall  he  record, 
"  Potts  loved  her,  loved  her  as  only  such  a  nature  as  his  ever 
loves  !  He  felt  keenly  that,  in  a  mere  worldly  point  of  view, 
he  must  sacrifice ;  but  it  was  exactly  in  that  love  and  that 
sacrifice  was  born  the  poet,  the  wondrous  child  of  song,  who 
has  given  us  the  most  glorious  lyrics  of  our  language.  He 
had  the  manliness  to  share  his  fortune  with  this  poor  girl. 
*  It  was,'  he  tells  us  of  himself,  in  one  of  those  little  touch- 
ing passages  in  his  diary,  which  place  him  immeasurably 
above  the  mock  sentimentality  of  Jean  Jacques,  —  '  it  was  on 
the  road  to  Constance,  of  a  bright  and  breezy  summer  morn- 
ing, that  I  told  her  of  my  love.  We  were  walking  along,  our 
arms  around  each  other,  as  might  two  happy,  guileless  chil- 
dren. I  was  very  young  in  what  is  called  the  world,  but  I 
had  a  boundless  confidence  in  myself ;  my  theory  was,  "  If  I 
be  strengthened  by  the  deep  devotion  of  one  loving  heart, 
I  have  no  fears  of  failure."  '  Beautiful  words,  and  worthy  of 
all  memory  !  And  then  he  goes  on :  '  I  drew  her  gently  over 
to  a  grassy  bench  on  the  roadside,  and,  taking  my  purse  from 
my  pocket,  poured  out  before  her  its  humble  contents,  in  all 
something  less  than  twenty  sovereigns,  but  to  her  eyes  a  very 
Pactolus  of  wealth.* " 

"What  if  I  were  to  try  this  experiment?"  thought  I; 
*'  what  if  I  were,  so  to  say,  to  anticipate  my  own  biog- 
raphy ?  "  The  notion  pleased  me  much.  There  was  some- 
thing novel  in  it,  too.  It  was  making  the  experiment  in 
the  corpore  vili  of  accident,  to  see  what  might  come  of  it. 

"  Come  here,  Catinka,"  said  I,  pointing  to  a  moss-covered 
rock  at  the  roadside,  with  a  little  well  at  its  base,  —  "  come 
here,  and  let  me  have  a  drink  of  this  nice  clear  water." 


I  RELIEVE  MYSELF  OF  MY  PURSE.  265 

She  assented  with  a  smile  and  a  nod,  detaching  at  the 
same  time  a  little  cup  from  the  flask  she  wore  at  her  side, 
mvivandi^re  fashion.  ''And  we'll  fill  my  flask  too,"  said 
she,  showing  that  it  was  empty.  With  a  sort  of  childish 
glee  she  now  knelt  beside  the  stream,  and  washed  the  cup. 
What  is  it,  I  wonder,  that  gives  the  charm  to  running 
water,  and  imparts  a  sort  of  glad  feeling  to  its  contem- 
plation? Is  it  that  its  ceaseless  flow  suggests  that  ''  for- 
ever*' which  contrasts  so  powerfully  with  all  short-lived 
pleasures?  I  cannot  tell,  but  I  was  still  musing  over  the 
difficulty,  when,  having  twice  offered  me  the  cup  without 
my  noticing  it,  she  at  last  raised  it  to  my  lips.  And  I 
drank,  —  oh,  what  a  draught  it  was !  so  clear,  so  cold,  so 
pure ;  and  all  the  time  my  eyes  were  resting  on  hers,  look- 
ing, as  it  were,  into  another  well,  the  deepest  and  most 
unfathomable  of  all. 

''  Sit  down  here  beside  me  on  this  stone,  Catinka,  and 
help  me  to  count  these  pieces  of  money;  they  have  got 
so  mingled  together  that  I  scarcely  know  what  is  left  me." 
She  seemed  delighted  with  the  project,  and  sat  down  at 
once;  and  I,  throwing  myself  at  her  feet,  poured  the  con- 
tents of  my  purse  into  her  lap. 

''^Madonna  mia!''  was  all  she  could  utter  as  she  beheld 
the  gold.  Aladdin  in  the  cave  never  felt  a  more  over- 
whelming rapture  than  did  she  at  sight  of  these  immense 
riches.  "  But  where  did  it  come  from?  "cried  she,  wildly. 
"Have  you  got  mines  of  gold  and  silver?  Have  you  got 
gems,  too,  —  rubies  and  pearls?  Oh,  say  if  there  be  pearls ; 
I  love  them  so?  And  are  you  really  a  great  prince,  the 
son  of  a  king ;  and  are  you  wandering  the  world  this  way 
to  seek  adventures,  or  in  search,  mayhap,  of  that  lovely 
princess  you  are  in  love  with  ?  "  With  wildest  impetuosity 
she  asked  these  and  a  hundred  other  questions,  for  it  was 
only  now  and  then  that  I  could  trace  her  meaning,  which 
expressive  pantomime  did  much  to  explain. 

I  tried  to  convince  her  that  what  she  deemed  a  treasure 
was  a  mere  pittance,  which  a  week  or  two  would  exhaust ; 
that  I  was  no  prince,  nor  had  I  a  kingly  father;  "  and  last 
of  all,"  said  I,  "I  am  not  in  pursuit  of  a  princess.  But 
I  '11  tell  you  what  I  am  in  search  of,  Catinka,  —  one  trusting, 


266  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

faithful,  loving  heart ;  one  that  will  so  unite  itself  to  mine 
as  to  have  no  joys  or  sorrows  or  cares  but  mine ;  one  con- 
tent to  go  wherever  I  go,  live  however  I  live,  and  no  matter 
what  my  faults  may  be,  or  how  meanly  others  think  of  me, 
will  ever  regard  me  with  eyes  of  love  and  devotion.'* 

I  had  held  her  hand  while  I  uttered  this,  gazing  up  into 
her  eyes  with  ecstasy,  for  I  saw  how  their  liquid  depth 
appeared  to  move  as  though  about  to  overflow,  when  at 
last  she  spoke,  and  said,  — 

''  And  there  are  no  pearls !  " 

''Poor  child !"  thought  I,  "she  cannot  understand  one 
word  I  have  been  saying.  Listen  to  me,  Catinka,"  said  I, 
with  a  slow  utterance.  "  Would  you  give  me  your  heart 
for  all  this  treasure  ?  '* 

''  Si,  si!'*  cried  she,  eagerly. 

"  And  love  me  always,  —  forever? " 

''xSi,"  said  she,  again ;  but  I  fancied  with  less  of  energy 
than  before. 

"And  when  it  was  spent  and  gone,  and  nothing  remain- 
ing of  it,  what  would  you  do  ?  " 

"  Send  you  to  gather  more,  mio  caro,"  said  she,  pressing 
my  hand  to  her  lips,  as  though  in  earnest  of  the  blandish- 
ments she  would  bestow  upon  me. 

Now,  I  cannot  affect  to  say  that  all  this  was  very  re- 
assuring. This  poor  simple  child  of  the  mountains  showed 
a  spirit  as  sordid  and  as  calculating  as  though  she  were 
baptized  in  May  Fair.  It  was  a  terrible  shock  to  me  to 
see  this ;  a  dire  overthrow  to  a  very  fine  edifice  that  I  was 
just  putting  the  roof  on!  "Would  Kate  Herbert  have 
made  me  such  a  speech?"  thought  I.  "Would  she  have 
declared  herself  so  venal  and  so  worldly?  —  and  why  not? 
May  it  not  be,  perhaps,  simply  that  a  mere  question  of 
good-breeding,  the  usages  of  a  polite  world,  might  have 
made  all  the  difference,  and  that  she  would  have  felt  what 
poor  Catinka  felt  and  owned  to?  If  this  were  true,  the 
advantages  were  all  on  the  side  of  sincerity.  With  honesty 
as  the  basis,  what  may  not  one  build  up  of  character? 
Where  there  is  candor  there  are  at  least  no  disappoint- 
ments. This  poor  simple  child,  untutored  in  the  wiles  of 
a  scheming  world,  where  all  is  false,  unreal,  and  deceptive, 


I  RELIEVE   MYSELF  OF  MY  PURSE.  £67 

has  the  courage  to  say  that  her  heart  can  be  bought.  She 
is  ready  iu  her  innocence,  too,  to  sell  it,  just  as  the  Indians 
sell  a  great  territory  for  a  few  glass  beads  or  bright  buttons. 
And  why  should  not  I  make  the  acquisition  in  the  very 
spirit  of  a  new  settler  ?  It  w^as  I  discovered  this  lone  island 
of  the  sea ;  it  was  I  first  landed  on  this  unknown  shore ; 
why  not  claim  a  sovereignty  so  cheaply  established  ?  "  I  put 
the  question  arithmetically  before  me :  Given,  a  young  girl, 
totally  new  to  life  and  its  seductions,  deeply  impressed  with 
the  value  of  wealth,  to  find  the  measure  of  venality  in  a  well- 
brought-up  young  lady,  educated  at  Clapham,  and  finished 
at  Boulogne-sur-Mer.  I  expressed  it  thus  :  T>  —  y  =  T-{'X,  or 
an  unknown  quantity. 

"  What  strange  marks  are  you  drawing  there?  "  cried  she, 
as  I  made  these  figures  on  the  slate. 

'*  A  caprice,"  said  I,  in  some  confusion. 

''  No,"  said  she ;  "I  know  better.  It  was  a  charm.  Tell 
truth,  — it  was  a  charm." 

"A  charm,  dearest;  but  for  what?" 

''  J  know,"  said  she,  shaking  her  head  and  laughing,  with 
a  sort  of  wicked  drollery. 

"  Tbu  know !     Impossible,  child." 

"  Yes,"  she  vsaid  with  great  gravity,  while  she  swept  her 
hand,  across  the  slate  and  erased  all  the  figures.  ''  Yes  / 
know,  and  I  '11  not  permit  it." 

"But  what,  in  Heaven's  name,  is  trotting  through  yonr 
head,  Catinka?  You  have  not  the  vaguest  idea  of  what 
those  signs  meant." 

''Yes,"  she  said,  even  more  solemnly  than  before.  "I 
know  it  all.  You  mean  to  steal  away  my  heart  in  spite  of 
me,  and  you  are  going  to  do  it  with  a  charm." 

"  And  what  success  shall  I  have,  Catinka?" 

"  Oh,  do  not  ask  me,"  said  she,  in  a  tone  of  touching 
misery.  "I  feel  it  very  sore  here."  And  she  pressed  her 
hand  to  her  side.  "Ah  me,"  sighed  she,  "if  there  were 
only  pearls !  " 

The  ecstasy  her  first  few  words  gave  me  was  terribly 
routed  by  this  vile  conclusion,  and  I  started  abruptly,  and 
in  an  angry  voice,  said,  "  Let  us  go  on ;  Vaterchen  will  fear 
we  are  lost." 


268  A  DAY'S   RIDE. 

*' And  all  this  gold;  what  shall  I  do  with  it?"  cried 
she. 

"  What  you  will.  Throw  it  into  the  well  if  you  like,"  said 
I,  angrily  ;  for  in  good  sooth  I  was  out  of  temper  with  her 
and  myself  and  all  mankind. 

"  Nay,"  said  she,  mildly,  "it  is  yours  ;  but  I  will  carry  it 
for  you  if  it  weary  you." 

I  might  have  felt  rebuked  by  the  submissive  gentleness 
of  her  words ;  indeed,  I  know  not  how  it  was  that  they 
did  not  so  move  me,  and  I  walked  on  in  front  of  her,  heed- 
less of  her  entreaties  that  I  should  wait  till  she  came  up 
beside  me. 

When  she  did  join  me,  she  wanted  to  talk  immensely. 
She  had  all  manner  of  questions  to  ask  about  where  my 
treasure  came  from;  how  often  I  went  back  there  to  re- 
plenish it;  was  I  quite  sure  that  it  could  never,  never 
be  exhausted,  and  such-like?  But  I  was  in  no  gracious 
mood  for  such  inquiries,  and,  telling  her  that  I  wished  to 
follow  my  own  thoughts  without  interruption,  I  walked 
along  in  silence. 

I  cannot  tell  the  weight  I  felt  at  my  heart.  I  am  not 
speaking  figuratively.  No ;  it  was  exactly  as  though  a 
great  mass  of  heavy  metal  filled  my  chest,  forced  out  my 
ribs,  and  pressed  down  my  diaphragm;  and  though  I  held 
my  hands  to  my  sides  with  all  my  force,  the  pressure  still 
remained. 

"What  a  bitter  mockery  it  is,"  thought  I,  **if  the  only 
false  thing  in  all  the  world  should  be  the  human  heart !  There 
are  diamonds  that  will  resist  fire,  gold  that  will  stand  the 
crucible  ;  but  the  moment  you  come  to  man  and  his  affections, 
all  is  hollow  and  illusory !  " 

Why  do  we  give  the  name  worldliness  to  traits  of  selfish 
advancement  and  sordid  gain,  when  a  young  creature  like 
this,  estranged  from  all  the  commerce  of  mankind,  who 
knows  nothing  of  that  bargain-and-barter  system  which  we 
call  civilization,  reared  and  nurtured  like  a  young  fawn  in 
her  native  woods,  should,  as  though  by  a  very  instinct  of 
corruption,  have  a  heart  as  venal  as  any  hackneyed  beauty 
of  three  London  seasons? 

Let  no  man  tell  me  now,  that  it  is  our  vicious  system. 


I  RELIEVE   MYSELF  OF  MY  PURSE.  269 

of  female  training,  our  false  social  organization,  our  spurious 
morality,  laxity  of  family  ties,  and  the  rest  of  it.  I  am 
firmly  persuaded  that  a  young  squaw  of  the  Choctaws  has  as 
many  anxieties  about  her  parti  as  any  belle  of  Belgravia, 
even  though  tlie  settlements  be  only  paid  in  sharks'  teeth 
and  human  toupees. 

And  what  an  absurdity  is  our  whole  code  on  this  subject ! 
A  man  is  actually  expected  to  court,  solicit,  and  even  wor- 
ship the  object  that  he  is  after  all  called  upon  to  pay  for. 
You  do  not  smirk  at  the  salmon  in  3^our  fishmonger's  window, 
or  ogle  the  lamb  at  your  butcher's ;  you  go  in  boldly  and 
say,  "  How  much  the  pound?  "  If  you  sighed  outside  for  a 
week,  you  'd  get  it  never  the  cheaper.  Why  not  then  make 
an  honest  market  of  what  is  so  salable?  What  a  saving  of 
time  to  know  that  the  splendid  creature  yonder,  with  the 
queenly  air,  can  only  be  had  at  ten  thousand  a  year,  but  that 
the  spicy  article  with  the  black  ringlets  will  go  for  two! 
Instead  of  all  the  heart-burnings  and  blank  disappointments 
we  see  now,  we  should  have  a  practical,  contented  genera- 
tion ;  and  in  the  same  spirit  that  a  man  of  moderate  fortune 
turns  away  from  the  seductions  of  turtle  and  whitebait, 
while  he  orders  home  his  mutton  chop,  he  would  avert  his 
gaze  from  beauty,  and  fix  his  affections  on  the  dumpy  woman 
that  can  be  **  got  a  bargain." 

Why  did  not  the  poet  say.  Venality,  thy  name  is  Woman? 
It  would  suit  the  prosody  about  as  well,  and  the  purpose 
better.  The  Turks  are  our  masters  in  all  this;  they  are 
centuries  —  whole  centuries  in  advance  of  us.  How  I  wish 
some  Babbage  would  make  a  calculation  of  the  hours,  weeks, 
years,  centuries  of  time,  are  lost  in  what  is  called  love-mak- 
ing !  Time,  we  are  told,  is  money  ;  and  here,  at  once,  is  the 
fund  to  pay  off  our  national  debt.  Take  the  ''  time  that's 
lost  in  wooing"  by  a  nation,  say  of  twenty-eight  or  thirty 
millions,  and  at  the  cheapest  rate  of  labor  —  take  the  prison 
rate  if  you  like  —  and  see  if  I  be  not  right.  Let  the  popula- 
tion who  now  heave  sighs  pound  oyster-shells,  let  those  who 
pick  quarrels  pick  oakum,  and  we  need  no  income-tax ! 

"I  '11  not  sing  any  more,"  broke  in  Catinka.  "I  don't 
think  you  have  been  listening  to  me." 

"Listening  to  you!"  said  I,  contemptuously;  "certainly 


270  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

not.  When  I  want  a  siren,  I  take  a  pit  ticket  and  go  to  the 
opera;  seven-and-slxpence  is  the  price  of  Circe,  and  dear 
at  the  money."  With  this  rude  rebuff  I  waved  her  off,  and 
walked  along  once  more  alone. 

At  a  sudden  bend  in  the  road  we  found  Vaterchen  seated 
under  a  tree  waiting  for  us,  and  evidently  not  a  little 
uneasy  at  our  long  absence. 

"What  is  this?"  said  he,  angrily,  to  Catinka.  "Why 
have  you  remained  so  long  behind  ?" 

"We  sat  down  to  rest  at  a  well,"  said  she,  "and  then  he 
took  out  a  great  bag  of  money  to  count,  and  there  was  so 
much  in  it,  so  many  pieces  of  bright  gold,  that  one  could 
not  help  turning  them  over  and  over,  and  gazing  at  them." 

"And  worshipping  them  too,  girl!  "  cried  he,  indignantly, 
while  he  turned  on  me  a  look  of  sorrow  and  reproach.  I 
returned  his  stare  haughtily,  and  he  arose  and  drew  me  to 
one  side. 

"Am  I,  then,  once  more  mistaken  in  my  judgment  of 
men?  Have  you^  too,  duped  me?"  said  he,  in  a  voice  that 
shook  with  agitation.  "Was  it  for  this  you  offered  us  the 
solace  of  your  companionship?  Was  it  for  this  you  conde- 
scended to  journey  with  us,  and  deigned  to  be  our  host  and 
entertainer  ?  " 

The  appeal  came  at  an  evil  moment:  a  vile,  contemptible 
scepticism  was  at  work  within  me.  The  rasp  and  file  of 
doubt  were  eating  away  at  my  heart,  and  I  deemed  "all  men 
liars." 

"  And  is  it  to  me  —  Potts  —  you  address  such  words  as 
these,  you  consummate  old  humbug?  What  is  there  about 
me  that  denotes  dupe  or  fool  ?  " 

The  old  man  shook  his  head,  and  made  a  gesture  to  imply 
he  had  not  understood  me ;  and  now  I  remembered  that  I 
had  uttered  this  rude  speech  in  English,  and  not  in  German. 
With  the  memory  of  this  fact  came  also  the  consciousness  of 
its  cruel  meaning.  What  if  I  should  have  wronged  him  ? 
What  if  the  poor  old  fellow  be  honest  and  upright?  What 
if  he  be  really  striving  to  keep  this  girl  in  the  path  of  virtue  ? 
I  came  close  to  him,  and  fixed  my  eyes  steadfastly  on  his 
face.  He  looked  at  me  fearlessly,  as  an  honest  man  might 
look.     He  never  tried  to  turn  away,  nor  did  he  make  the 


I  RELIEVE   MYSELF  OF  MY  PUKSE.  271 

slightest  effort  to  evade  me.  He  seemed  to  understand  all 
the  import  of  my  scrutiny,  for  he  said,  at  last,  — 

"Well,  are  you  satisfied?" 

''I  am,  Vaterchen,"  said  I,  "fully  satisfied.  Let  us  be 
friends."     And  I  took  his  hand  and  shook  it  heartily. 

"You  think  me  honest?  "  asked  he. 

"I  do  think  so." 

"And  I  am  not  more  honest  than  she  is.  No,"  said  he, 
resolutely,  "Tintefleck  is  true-hearted." 

"What  of  me  ?  "  cried  she,  coming  up  and  leaning  her  arm 
on  the  old  man's  shoulder,  —  "what  of  me  ?  " 

"I  have  said  that  you  are  honest,  and  would  not  deceive!  " 

"Not  you,  Vaterchen,  — not  you,''  said  she,  kissing  him. 
And  then,  as  she  turned  away,  she  gave  me  a  look  so  full  of 
meaning,  and  so  strange,  withal,  that  if  I  were  to  speak 
for  an  hour  I  could  not  explain  it.  It  seemed  to  mean 
sorrow  and  reproach  and  wounded  pride,  with  a  dash  of 
pity,  and  above  all  and  everything,  defiance ;  ay,  that  was 
its  chief  character,  and  I  believe  I  winced  under  it. 

"Let  us  step  out  briskly,"  said  Vaterchen.  "Constance 
is  a  good  eleven  miles  off  yet." 

"He  looks  tired  already,"  said  she,  with  a  glance  at  me. 

"I?  I'm  as  fresh  as  when  I  started,"  said  L  And  I 
made  an  effort  to  appear  brisk  and  lively,  which  only  ended 
in  making  them  laugh  heartily. 


CHAPTER  XXXin. 

MT  ELOQUENCE   BEFORE    THE    CONSTANCE    MAGISTRATES. 

Respectable  reader,  there  is  no  use  in  asking  you  if  you 
have  ever  been  in  the  Hotel  of  the  "Balance,"  at  Constance. 
Of  course  you  have  not.  It  is  neither  recorded  in  the  book 
of  John,  nor  otherwise  known  to  fame.  It  is  an  obscure 
hostel,  only  visited  by  the  very  humblest  wayfarers,  and 
such  poor  offshoots  of  wretchedness  as  are  fain  to  sleep  on 
a  truckle-bed  and  sup  meanly.  Vaterchen,  however,  spoke 
of  it  in  generous  terms.  There  was  a  certain  oniony  soup 
he  had  tasted  there  years  ago  whose  flavor  had  not  yet  left 
his  memory.  He  had  seen,  besides,  the  most  delicious 
schweine  fleisch  hanging  down  from  the  kitchen  rafters,  and 
it  had  been  revealed  to  him  in  a  dream  that  a  solvent  trav- 
eller might  have  rashers  on  demand. 

Poor  fellow !  I  had  not  the  vaguest  idea  of  the  eloquence 
he  possessed  till  he  came  to  talk  on  these  matters.  From 
modest  and  distrustful,  he  grew  assured  and  confident;  his 
hesitation  of  speech  was  replaced  by  a  fluent  utterance  and 
a  rich  vocabulary;  and  he  repeatedly  declared  that  though 
the  exterior  was  unprepossessing,  and  the  surface  generally 
homely,  there  were  substantial  comforts  obtainable  which 
far  surpassed  the  resources  of  more  pretentious  houses. 
"You  are  served  on  pewter,  it  is  true,"  said  he;  "but  pewter 
is  a  rare  material  to  impart  relish  to  a  savory  mess." 
Though  we  should  dine  in  the  kitchen,  he  gave  me  to  under- 
stand that  even  in  this  there  were  advantages,  and  that  the 
polite  guest  of  the  salon  never  knew  what  it  was  to  taste  that 
rich  odor  of  the  "roast,"  or  that  fragrant  incense  that 
steamed  up  from  the  luscious  stew,  and  which  were  to 
cookery  what  bouquet  was  to  wine. 


MY  ELOQUENCE  BEFORE  THE  MAGISTRATES.      273 

"I  will  not  say  that,  honored  sir,"  continued  he,  "to  you, 
in  the  mixed  company  which  frequent  such  humble  hearths 
there  would  be  matter  of  interest  and  amusement;  but,  to  a 
man  like  myself,  these  chance  companionships  are  delightful. 
Here  all  are  stragglers,  all  adventurers.  Not  a  man  that 
deposits  his  pack  in  the  corner  and  draws  in  his  chair  to 
the  circle  but  is  a  wanderer  and  a  pilgrim  of  one  sort  or 
other."  He  drew  me  an  amusing  picture  of  one  of  these 
groups,  wherein,  even  without  telling  his  story,  each  gave 
such  insight  into  his  life  and  travels  as  to  present  a  sort  of 
drama. 

Whether  it  was  that  my  companion  had  drawn  too  freely 
on  his  imagination,  or  that  we  had  fallen  on  an  unfortunate 
moment,  I  cannot  say ;  but,  though  we  found  the  company 
at  the  "Balance"  numerous  and  varied,  there  was  none  of 
the  sociality  I  looked  for,  still  less  of  that  generous  warmth 
and  good  greeting  which  he  assured  me  was  the  courtesy 
of  such  places.  The  men  were  chiefly  carriers,  with  their 
mule-teams  and  heavy  wagons,  bound  for  the  Bavarian 
Tyrol.  There  was  a  sprinkling  of  Jew  pedlers,  on  their 
way  to  the  Vorarlberg;  a  deserter  from  the  Austrian  army, 
trying  to  get  back  to  Hesse  Cassel ;  and  an  Italian  image 
carrier,  with  a  green  parrot  and  a  well-filled  purse,  going 
back  to  finish  his  days  at  Lucca. 

Now  none  of  these  were  elements  of  a  very  exalted  or 
exclusive  rank ;  they  were  each  and  all  of  them  taken  from 
the  very  base  of  the  social  pyramid ;  and  yet,  would  it  be 
believed  that  they  regarded  our  entrance  amongst  them  as 
an  act  of  rare  impudence ! 

A  more  polished  company  might  have  been  satisfied  with 
averted  heads  or  cold  looks;  these  were  less  equivocal. 
One  called  out  to  the  landlord  to  know  if  he  expected 
^^y  gypsies ;  another,  affecting  to  treat  us  as  solicitors  for 
their  patronage,  said  he  had  no  "batzen"  to  bestow  on 
buffoonery ;  a  third  suggested  we  should  get  up  our  theatri- 
cals under  the  cart-shed  outside,  and  beat  the  drum  when 
we  were  ready;  and  the  deserter,  a  poor  weak-looking, 
mangy  wretch  with  a  ragged  fatigue-jacket  and  broken 
boots,  put  his  arm  round  Catinka's  waist,  to  draw  her  on 
his  knee,  for  the  which  she  dealt  him  such  a  slap  on  the 

18 


274  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

face  as  fairly  sent  him  on  the  floor,  in  which  ignoble  posi» 
tion  Vaterchen  kicked  him  again  and  again.  In  an  instant 
all  were  upon  us.  Carters,  pedlers,  and  image  men  assailed 
us  furiously.  I  suppose  I  beat  somebody;  I  know  that 
several  beat  me.  The  impression  left  upon  me  when  all 
was  over  was  of  a  sort  of  human  kaleidoscope,  where  the 
people  turned  every  way  without  ceasing.  Now  we  seemed 
all  on  our  feet,  now  on  our  heads,  now  on  the  floor,  now  in 
the  air,  Vaterchen  flying  about  like  a  demon,  while  Tinte- 
fleck  stood  in  a  corner,  with  a  gleaming  stiletto  in  hand, 
saying  something  in  Calabrian,  which  sounded  like  an  invi- 
tation to  come  and  be  killed. 

The  police  came  at  last;  and,  after  a  noisy  scene  of  accu- 
sation and  denial,  the  weight  of  evidence  went  against  us, 
and  we  were  marched  off  to  prison,  poor  old  Vaterchen 
crying  like  a  child,  for  all  the  disgrace  and  misery  he  had 
brought  on  his  benefactor:  and  while  he  kissed  my  hand, 
swearing  that  a  whole  life's  devotion  would  not  be  enough 
to  recompense  me  for  what  he  had  been  the  means  of  inflict- 
ing on  me,  Catinka  took  it  more  easily,  her  chief  regret 
apparently  being,  that  nobody  came  near  enough  to  give 
her  a  chance  with  her  knife,  which  she  assured  us  she 
wielded  with  a  notable  skill,  and  could,  with  a  jerk,  send 
flying  through  a  door,  like  a  javelin,  at  full  six  paces'  dis- 
tance; nor,  indeed,  was  it  without  considerable  persuasion 
she  could  be  induced  to  restore  it  to  its  sheath,  which  truth 
obliges  me  to  own  was  inside  her  garter.  Our  prison,  an 
old  tower  adjoining  the  lake,  had  been  once  the  dungeon  of 
John  Huss,  and  the  torture  chamber,  as  it  was  still  called, 
continued  to  be  used  for  mild  transgressors,  such  as  we 
were.  A  small  bribe  induced  the  jailer's  wife  to  take  poor 
Tintefleck  for  the  night  into  her  own  quarters,  and  Vater- 
chen and  I  were  sole  possessors  of  the  gloomy  old  hall,  which 
opened  by  a  balcony,  railed  like  a  sort 'of  cage,  ove;-  the 
lake. 

If  the  torture  chamber  had  been  denuded  of  its  flesh  pin- 
cers and  thumb-screws,  and  the  other  ingenious  devices  of 
human  cruelty,  I  am  bound  to  own  that  its  traditions  as  a 
place  of  suffering  had  not  died  out,  as  the  fleas  left  nothing 
to  be  desired  on  the  score  of  misery.     "Whether  it  was  that 


MY  ELOQUENCE  BEFORE  THE  MAGISTRATES.      275 

they  had  been  pinched  by  a  long  fast,  or  that  we  were  more 
tender,  cutaneously,  than  the  aborigines,  I  know  not,  but  I 
can  safely  aver  that  I  never  passed  such  a  night,  and  sin- 
cerely trust  that  I  may  never  pass  such  another.  Though 
the  air  from  the  lake  was  cold  and  chilly,  we  preferred  to 
crouch  on  the  balcony  to  remaining  within  the  walls;  but 
even  here  our  persecutors  followed  us. 

Vaterchen  slept  through  it  all ;  an  occasional  convulsive 
jerk  would  show,  at  times,  when  one  of  the  enemy  had 
chanced  upon  some  nervous  fibre;  but,  on  the  whole,  he 
bore  up  like  one  used  to  such  martyrdom,  and  able  to  brave 
it.  As  for  me,  when  morning  broke,  I  looked  like  a 
strong  case  of  confluent  smallpox,  with  the  addition  that  my 
heavy  eyelids  nearly  closed  over  my  eyes,  and  my  lips 
swelled  out  like  a  Kaffir's.  How  that  young  minx,  Catinka, 
laughed  at  me.  All  the  old  man's  signs,  warnings,  men- 
aces, were  in  vain;  she  screamed  aloud  with  laughter,  and 
never  ceased,  even  as  we  were  led  into  the  tribunal  and  be- 
fore the  dread  presence  of  the  judge. 

The  judgment-seat  was  not  imposing.  It  was  a  long, 
low,  ill-lighted  chamber,  with  a  sort  of  raised  counter  at  one 
end,  behind  which  sat  three  elderly  men,  dressed  like  master 
sweeps,  —  that  is,  of  the  old  days  of  climbing-boys.  The 
prisoners  were  confined  in  a  thing  like  a  fold,  and  there 
leaned  against  one  end  of  the  same  pen  as  ourselves,  a 
square-built,  thick-set  man  of  about  eight-and-forty,  or 
fifty,  dressed  in  a  suit  of  coarse  drab,  and  whom,  notwith- 
standing an  immense  red  beard  and  moustache,  a  clear  blue 
eye  and  broad  brow  proclaimed  to  be  English.  He  was 
being  interrogated  as  we  entered,  but  from  his  total  igno- 
rance of  German  the  examination  was  not  proceeding  very 
glibly. 

"You  're  an  Englishman,  ain't  you?"  cried  he,  as  I  came 
in.     "You  can  speak  High  Dutch,  perhaps?" 

"I  can  speak  German  well  enough  to  be  intelligible,  sir." 

*'A11  right,"  said  he,  in  the  same  free-and-easy  tone. 
"Will  you  explain  to  those  old  beggars  there  that  they  're 
making  fools  of  themselves.  Here  's  how  it  is.  My  pass- 
port was  made  out  for  two;  for  Thomas  Harpar,  that 's  me, 
and  Sam  Rigges.     Now,  because  Sam  Rigges  ain't  here, 


276  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

they  tell  me  I  can't  be  suffered  to  proceed.  Ain't  that  stu- 
pid? Did  you  ever  hear  the  like  of  that  for  downright 
absurdity  before  ?  " 

"But  where  is  he?  " 

*' Well,  I  don't  mind  telling  you,  because  you  're  a  country- 
man; but  I  don't  like  blackening  an  Englishman  to  one  of 
those  confounded  foreigners.     Rigges  has  run." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  '  run  '  ?  " 

"I  mean,  cut  his  stick;  gone  clean  away;  and  what's 
worse,  too,  carried  off  a  stout  bag  of  dollars  with  him  that 
we  had  for  our  journey." 

"Whither  were  you  going?  " 

"That 's  neither  here  nor  there,  and  don't  concern  you 
in  any  respect.  What  you  've  to  do  is,  explain  to  the  old 
cove  yonder,  —  the  fellow  in  the  middle  is  the  worst  of  them, 
—  tell  him  it 's  all  right,  that  I  'm  Harpar,  and  that  the  other 
ain't  here;  or,  look  here,  I  '11  tell  you  what's  better,  do  you 
be  Rigges,  and  it 's  all  right." 

I  demurred  flatly  to  this  suggestion,  but  undertook  to 
plead  his  cause  on  its  true  merits. 

"And  who  are  you,  sir,  that  presume  to  play  the  advocate 
here?"  said  the  judge,  haughtily.  "I  fancied  that  you 
stood  there  to  answer  a  charge  against  yourself." 

"That  matter  may  be  very  easily  disposed  of,  sir,"  said 
I,  as  proudly;  "and  you  will  be  very  fortunate  if  you  suc- 
ceed as  readily  in  explaining  your  own  illegal  arrest  of 
me  to  the  higher  court  of  your  country." 

With  the  eloquence  which  we  are  told  essentially  belongs 
to  truth,  I  narrated  how  I  had  witnessed,  as  a  mere  passing 
traveller,  the  outrageous  insult  offered  to  these  poor  wander- 
ers as  they  entered  the  inn.  With  the  warm  enthusiasm  of 
one  inspired  by  a  good  cause,  I  painted  the  whole  incident 
with  really  scarcely  a  touch  of  embellishment,  reserving  the 
only  decorative  portion  to  a  description  of  myself,  whom  I 
mentioned  as  an  agent  of  the  British  government,  especially 
employed  on  a  peculiar  service,  the  confirmation  of  which 
I  proudly  established  by  my  passport  setting  forth  that  I 
was  a  certain  "Ponto,  Charge  des  Depeches." 

Now  if  there  be  one  feature  of  continental  life  fixed  and 
immutable,  it  is  this:  that  wherever  the  German  language 


MY  ELOQUENCE  BEFORE  THE  MAGISTRATES.      277 

be  spoken,  the  reverence  for  a  government  functionary  is 
supreme.  If  you  can  only  show  on  documentary  evidence 
that  you  are  grandson  of  the  man  who  made  the  broom  that 
swept  out  a  government  office,  it  is  enough.  You  are  from 
that  hour  regarded  as  one  of  the  younger  children  of  Bureau- 
cracy. You  are  under  the  protection  of  the  state,  and 
though  you  be  but  the  smallest  rivet  in  the  machinery,  there 
is  no  saying  what  mischief  might  not  ensue  if  you  were 
either  lost  or  mislaid. 

I  saw  in  an  instant  the  dread  impression  I  had  created, 
and  I  said,  in  a  voice  of  careless  insolence,  "  Go  on,  I  beg 
of  you;  send  me  back  to  prison;  chain  me;  perhaps  you 
would  like  to  torture  me  ?  The  government  I  represent  is 
especially  slow  in  vindicating  the  rights  of  its  injured  oflS- 
cials.  It  has  a  European  reputation  for  long-suffering, 
patience,  and  forbearance.  Yes,  Englishmen  can  be  impaled, 
burned,  flayed  alive,  disembowelled.  By  all  means,  avail 
yourselves  of  your  bland  privileges;  have  me  led  out  in- 
stantly to  the  scaffold,  unless  you  prefer  to  have  me  broken 
on  the  wheel !  " 

"Will  nobody  stop  him!"  cried  the  president,  almost 
choking  with  wrath. 

''Stop  me;  I  suspect  not,  sir.  It  is  upon  these  declara- 
tions of  mine,  made  thus  openly,  that  my  country  will  found 
that  demand  for  reparation  which  will  one  day  cost  you  so 
dearly.  Lead  on,  I  am  ready  for  the  block."  And  as  I 
said  this,  I  untied  my  cravat,  and  appeared  to  prepare  for 
the  headsman. 

"If  he  will  not  cease,  the  court  shall  be  dissolved,"  called 
out  the  judge. 

"Never,  sir.  Never,  so  long  as  I  live,  shall  I  surrender 
the  glorious  privileges  of  that  freedom  by  which  I  assert 
my  birthright  as  a  Briton." 

"Well,  you  are  as  impudent  a  chap  as  ever  I  listened  to," 
muttered  my  countryman  at  my  side. 

"The  prisoners  are  dismissed,  the  court  is  adjourned," 
said  the  president,  rising;  and  amidst  a  very  disorderly 
crowd,  not  certainly  enthusiastic  in  our  favor,  we  were  all 
hurried  into  the  street. 

"Come  along  down  here,"  said  Mr.  Harpar.     "I  'm  in  a 


278  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

very  tidy  sort  of  place  they  call  the  '  Golden  Pig. '  Come 
along,  and  bring  the  vagabonds,  and  let 's  have  breakfast 
together." 

I  was  hurt  at  the  speech;  but  as  my  companions  could  not 
understand  its  coarseness,  I  accepted  the  invitation,  and 
we  followed  him. 

"Well,  I  ain't  seen  your  like  for  many  a. day,"  said 
Harpar,  as  we  went  along.  "If  you  'd  have  said  the  half  of 
that  to  one  of  our  '  Beaks,'  I  think  I  know  where  you  'd  be. 
But  you  seem  to  understand  the  fellows  well.  Mayhap  you 
have  lived  much  abroad  ?  " 

"A  great  deal.  I  am  a  sort  of  citizen  of  the  world,"  said 
I,  with  a  jaunty  easiness. 

"For  a  citizen  of  the  world  you  appear  to  have  strange 
tastes  in  your  companionship.  How  did  you  come  to  for- 
gather with  these  creatures  ?  " 

I  tried  the  timeworn  cant  about  seeing  life  in  all  its  gra- 
dations, —  exploring  the  cabin  as  well  as  visiting  the 
palace,  and  so  on;  but  there  was  a  rugged  sort  of  incre- 
dulity in  his  manner  that  checked  me,  and  I  could  not 
muster  the  glib  rudeness  which  usually  stood  by  me  on 
such  occasions. 

"You  're  not  a  man  of  fortune,"  said  he,  dryly,  as  I  fin- 
ished; "one  sees  that  plainly  enough.  You  're  a  fellow  that 
should  be  earning  his  bread  somehow;  and  the  question  is, 
—  Is  this  the  kind  of  life  that  you  ought  to  be  leading? 
"What  humbug  it  is  to  talk  about  knowing  the  world  and 
such-like.  The  thing  is,  to  know  a  trade,  to  understand 
some  art,  to  be  able  to  produce  something,  to  manufacture 
something,  to  convert  something  to  a  useful  purpose. 
When  you  've  done  that,  the  knowledge  of  men  will  come 
later  on,  never  be  afraid  of  that.  It 's  a  school  that  we 
never  miss  one  single  day  of  our  lives.  But  here  we  are; 
this  is  the  '  Pig.'  Now,  what  will  you  have  for  breakfast? 
Ask  the  vagabonds,  too,  and  tell  them  there  's  a  wide  choice 
here;  they  have  everything  you  can  mention  in  this  little 
inn." 

An  excellent  breakfast  was  soon  spread  out  before  us, 
and  though  my  humble  companions  did  it  the  most  ample 
justice,  I  sat  there,  thoughtful  and  almost  sad.     The  words 


MY  ELOQUENCE  BEFORE  THE   MAGISTRATES.     279 

of  that  stranger  rang  in  my  ears  like  a  reproach  and  a  warn- 
ing. I  knew  how  truly  he  had  said  that  I  was  not  a  man  of 
fortune,  and  it  grieved  me  sorely  to  think  how  easily  he  saw 
it.  In  my  heart  of  hearts  I  knew  it  was  the  delusion  I 
loved  best.  To  appear  to  the  world  at  large  an  eccentric 
man  of  good  means,  free  to  do  what  he  liked  and  go  where 
he  would,  was  the  highest  enjoyment  I  had  ever  prepared 
for  myself;  and  yet  here  was  a  coarse,  commonplace  sort 
of  man,  —  at  least,  his  manners  were  unpolished  and  his 
tone  underbred,  —  and  he  saw  through  it  all  at  once. 

I  took  the  tirat  opportunity  to  slip  away  unobserved  from 
the  company,  and  retired  to  the  little  garden  of  the  inn,  to 
commune  with  myself  and  be  alone.  But  ere  I  had  been 
many  minutes  there,  Harpar  joined  me.  He  came  up  smok- 
ing his  cigar,  with  the  lounging,  lazy  air  of  a  man  at  perfect 
leisure,  and,  consequently,  quite  free  to  be  as  disagreeable 
as  he  pleased. 

''You  went  off  without  eating  your  breakfast,"  said  he, 
bluntly.  "  I  saw  how  it  was.  You  did  n't  like  my  freedom 
with  you.  You  fancied  that  I  ought  to  have  taken  all  that 
nonsense  of  yours  about  your  rank  and  your  way  of  life  for 
gospel ;  or,  at  least,  that  I  ought  to  have  pretended  to  do  so. 
That  ain't  my  way.     I  hate  humbug." 

It  was  not  very  easy  to  reply  good  humoredly  to  such  a 
speech  as  this.  Indeed,  I  saw  no  particular  reason  to  treat 
this  man's  freedom  with  any  indulgence,  and  drawing  my- 
self haughtily  up,  I  prepared  a  very  dry  but  caustic 
rejoinder. 

''When  I  have  learned  two  points,"  said  I,  "on  which  you 
<;an  inform  me,  I  may  be  better  able  to  answer  what  you 
have  said.  The  first  is:  By  what  possible  right  do  you  take 
to  task  a  person  that  you  never  met  in  your  life  till  now? 
and,  secondly.  What  benefit  on  earth  could  it  be  to  me  to 
impose  upon  a  man  from  whom  I  neither  want  nor  expect 
anything?" 

"Easily  met,  both,"  said  he,  quickly.  "I'm  a  practical 
sort  of  fellow,  who  never  wastes  time  on  useless  materials ; 
that's  for  your  first  proposition.  Number  two:  you 're  a 
dreamer,  and  you  hate  being  awakened." 

"Well,  sir,"  said  I,  stiflfly,  "to  a  gentleman  so  remarkable 


280  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

for  perspicuity,  and  who  reads  character  at  sight,  ordinary 
intercourse  must  be  wearisome.  Will  you  excuse  me  if  I 
take  my  leave  of  you  here  ?  " 

"Of  course,  make  no  ceremony  about  it;  go  or  stay,  just 
as  you  like.     I  never  cross  any  man's  humor." 

I  muttered  something  that  sounded  like  a  dissent  to  that 
doctrine,  and  he  quickly  added,  "I  mean,  further  than 
speaking  my  mind,  that 's  all ;  nothing  more.  If  you  had 
been  a  man  of  fair  means,  and  for  a  frolic  thought  it  might 
be  good  fun  to  consort  for  a  few  days  with  rapscallions  of  a 
travelling  circus,  all  one  could  say  was,  it  was  n't  very  good 
taste;  but  being,  evidently,  a  fellow  of  another  stamp,  a 
young  man  who  ought  to  be  in  his  father's  shop  or  his 
uncle's  counting-house,  following  some  honest  craft  or  call- 
ing, —  for  you^  I  say,  it  was  downright  ruin." 

"Indeed!  "  said  I,  with  an  accent  of  intense  scorn. 

"Yes,"  continued  he,  seriously,  "downright  ruin. 
There 's  a  poison  in  the  lazy,  good-for-nothing  life  of 
these  devils,  that  never  leaves  a  man's  blood.  I  've  a  notion 
that  it  would  n't  hurt  a  man's  nature  so  much  were  he  to  con- 
sort with  housebreakers;  there's,  at  least,  something  real 
about  these  fellows." 

"You  talk,  doubtless,  with  knowledge,  sir,"  said  I,  glad 
to  say  something  that  might  offend  him. 

"I  do,"  said  he,  seriously,  and  not  taking  the  smallest 
account  of  the  impertinent  allusion.  "I  know  that  if  a 
man  has  n't  a  fixed  calling,  but  is  always  turning  his  hand  to 
this,  that,  and  t'  other,  he  will  very  soon  cease  to  have  any 
character  whatsoever;  he'll  just  become  as  shift}^  in  his 
nature  as  in  his  business.  I  've  seen  scores  of  fellows 
wrecked  on  that  rock,  and  I  had  n't  looked  at  you  twice  till  I 
saw  you  were  one  of  them." 

"I  must  say,  sir,"  said  I,  summoning  to  my  aid  what  I 
felt  to  be  a  most  cutting  sarcasm  of  manner,  —  "I  must  say, 
sir,  that,  considering  how  short  has  been  the  acquaintance 
which  has  subsisted  between  us,  it  would  be  extremely  diflS- 
cult  for  me  to  show  how  gratefully  I  feel  the  interest  you  have 
taken  in  me." 

"Well,  I  'm  not  so  sure  of  that,**  said  he,  thoughtfully. 

"May  I  ask,  then,  how?" 


MY  ELOQUENCE  BEFORE  THE  MAGISTRATES.     281 

"Are  you  sure,  first  of  all,  that  you  wish  to  show  this 
gratitude  you  speak  of  ?  " 

"Oh,  sir,  can  you  possibly  doubt  it?" 

"I  don't  want  to  doubt  it,  I  want  to  profit  by  it." 

I  made  a  bland  bow  that  might  mean  anything,  but  did 
not  speak. 

"Here's  the  way  of  it,"  said  he,  boldly.  "Rigges  has 
run  off  with  all  my  loose  cash,  and  though  there  *s  money 
waiting  for  me  at  certain  places,  I  shall  find  it  very  difficult 
to  reach  them.  I  have  come  down  here  on  foot  from  Wild- 
bad,  and  I  can  make  my  way  in  the  same  fashion,  to  Mar- 
seilles or  Genoa ;  but  then  comes  the  difficulty,  and  I  shall 
need  about  ten  pounds  to  get  to  Malta.  Could  you  lend 
me  ten  pounds  ?  " 

"Really,  sir,"  said  I,  coolly,  "I  am  amazed  at  the  inno- 
cence with  which  you  can  make  such  a  demand  on  the  man 
whom  you  have,  only  a  few  minutes  back,  so  acutely  de- 
picted as  an  adventurer." 

"It  was  for  that  very  reason  I  thought  of  applying  to  you. 
Had  you  been  a  young  fellow  of  a  certain  fortune,  you  'd 
naturally  have  been  a  stranger  to  the  accidents  which  now 
and  then  leave  men  penniless  in  out-of-the-way  places,  and 
it  is  just  as  likely  that  the  first  thought  in  your  head  would 
be,  '  Oh,  he  's  a  swindler.  Why  has  n't  he  his  letters  of 
credit  or  his  circular  notes  ? '  But,  being  exactly  what  I 
take  you  for,  the  chances  are,  you  '11  say ;  '  What  has  be- 
fallen him  to-day  may  chance  to  me  to-morrow.  Who  can 
tell  the  day  and  the  hour  some  mishap  may  not  overtake 
him?  and  so  I  '11  just  help  him  through  it.'  " 

"  And  that  was  your  calculation  ?  " 

"That  was  my  calculation." 

"How  sorry  I  feel  to  wound  the  marvellous  gift  you  seem 
to  possess  of  interpreting  character.  I  am  really  shocked 
to  think  that  for  this  time,  at  least,  your  acuteness  is  at 
fault." 

"Which  means  that  you  '11  not  do  it." 

I  smiled  a  benign  assent. 

He  looked  at  me  for  a  minute  or  more  with  a  soii;  of  blank 
incredulity,  and  then,  crossing  his  arms  on  his  breast,  moved 
slowly  down  the  walk  without  speaking. 


282  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  cannot  say  how  I  detested  this  man ;  he  had  ofifended  me 
in  the  very  sorest  part  of  all  my  nature;  he  had  wounded 
the  nicest  susceptibility  I  possessed ;  of  the  pleasant  fancies 
wherewith  I  loved  to  clothe  myself  he  would  not  leave  me 
enough  to  cover  my  nakedness;  and  yet,  now  that  I  had 
resented  his  cool  impertinence,  I  hated  myself  far  more 
than  I  hated  him.  Dignity  and  sarcasm,  forsooth!  What 
a  fine  opportunity  to  display  them,  truly !  The  man  might 
be  rude  and  underbred;  he  was  rude  and  underbred!  and 
was  that  any  justification  for  my  conduct  towards  him? 
Why  had  I  not  had  the  candor  to  say,  ''Here  's  all  I  possess 
in  the  world ;  you  see  yourself  that  I  cannot  lend  you  ten 
pounds."  How  I  wished  I  had  said  that,  and  how  I 
wished,  even  more  ardently  still,  that  I  had  never  met  him, 
never  interchanged  speech  with  him ! 

"And  why  is  it  that  I  am  offended  with  him,  —  simply 
because  he  has  discovered  that  I  am  Potts?"  Novv,  these 
reflections  were  all  the  more  bitter,  since  it  was  only 
twenty-four  hours  before  that  I  had  resolved  to  throw  off 
delusion  either  of  myself  or  others ;  that  I  would  take  my 
place  in  the  ranks,  and  fight  out  my  battle  of  life  a  mere 
soldier.  For  this  it  was  that  I  made  companionship  with 
Vaterchen,  walking  the  high  road  with  that  poor  old  man  of 
motley,  and  actually  speculating  —  in  a  sort  of  artistic  way 
—  whether  I  should  not  make  love  to  Tintefleck !  And  if  I 
were  sincere  in  all  this,  how  should  I  feel  wounded  by  the 
honest  candor  of  that  plain-spoken  fellow.  He  wanted  a 
favor  at  my  hands,  he  owned  this;  and  yet,  instead  of 
approaching  me  with  flattery,  he  at  once  assails  the  very 
stronghold  of  my  self-esteem,  and  says,  "No  humbug. 
Potts ;  at  least  none  with  me  !  "  He  opens  acquaintance  with 
me  on  that  masonic  principle  by  which  the  brotherhood  of 
Poverty  is  maintained  throughout  all  lands  and  all  peoples, 
and  whose  great  maxim  is,  "He  who  lends  to  the  poor  man 
borrows  from  the  ragged  man." 

"I'll  go  after  him  at  once,"  said  I,  aloud.  "I'll  have 
more  talk  with  him.  I  'm  much  mistaken  if  there  's  not  good 
stuff  in  that  rugged  nature." 

When  I  entered  the  little  inn,  I  found  Vaterchen  fast 
asleep;  he  had  finished  off  every  flask  on  the  table,  and  lay 


MY  ELOQUENCE  BEFORE  THE  MAGISTRATES.      283 

breathing  stertorously,  and  giving  a  long-drawn  whistle  in 
his  snore,  that  smacked  almost  of  apoplexy.  Tintefleck 
was  singing  to  her  guitar  before  a  select  audience  of  the  inn 
servants,  and  Harpar  was  gone ! 

I  gave  the  girl  a  glance  of  rebuke  and  displeasure.  I 
aroused  the  old  man  with  a  kick,  and  imperiously  demanded 
my  bill. 

"The  bill  has  been  paid  by  the  other  stranger,"  said  the 
landlord;  "he  has  settled  everything,  and  left  a  trinkgeld 
for  the  servants,  so  that  you  have  nothing  to  pay." 

I  could  have  almost  cried  with  spite  as  I  heard  these 
words.  It  would  have  been  a  rare  solace  to  my  feelings 
if  I  could  have  put  that  man  down  for  a  rogue,  and  then 
been  able  to  say  to  myself,  how  cleverly  I  had  escaped  the 
snares  of  a  swindler.  But  to  know  now  that  he  was  not 
only  honest  but  liberal,  and  to  think,  besides,  that  I  had 
been  his  guest,  —  eaten  of  his  salt,  —  it  was  more  than  I 
well  could  endure. 

"Which  way  did  he  take?  "  asked  I. 

"Round  the  head  of  the  lake  for  Lindau.  I  told  him 
that  the  steamer  would  take  him  there  to-morrow  for  a 
tiifle,  but  he  would  not  wait." 

"Ah  me!"  sighed  Vaterchen,  but  half  awake,  and  with 
one  eye  still  closed,  "and  we  are  going  to  St.  Gallen." 

"Who  said  so?"  cried  I,  imperiously.  "We  are  going 
to  Lindau;  at  least,  if  I  be  the  person  who  gives  orders 
here.  Follow !  "  And  as  I  spoke  I  marched  proudly  on, 
while  a  slip-shod,  shuffling  noise  of  feet,  and  a  low,  half- 
smothered  sob  told  me  that  they  were  coming  after  me. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

A    SUMPTUOUS   DINNER   AND   AN   EMPTY   POCKET. 

My  poor  companions  had  but  a  sorry  time  of  it  on  that 
morning.  I  was  in  a  fearful  temper,  and  made  no  effort  to 
control  it.  The  little  romance  of  my  meeting  with  these 
creatures  was  beginning  to  scale  off,  and,  there  beneath,  lay 
the  vulgar  metal  of  their  natures  exposed  to  view.  As  for 
old  Vaterchen,  shuffling  along  in  his  tattered  shoes,  half- 
stupid  with  wine  and  shame  together,  I  could  n't  bear  to 
look  at  him  ;  while  Tintefleck,  although  at  the  outset  abashed 
by  my  rebukeful  tone  and  cold  manner,  had  now  rallied, 
and  seemed  well  disposed  to  assert  her  own  against  all 
comers.  Yes,  there"  was  a  palpable  air  of  defiance  about 
her,  even  to  the  way  that  she  sang  as  she  went  along ;  every 
thrill  and  cadence  seemed  to  say,  "  I  *m  doing  this  to  amuse 
myself ;  never  imagine  that  I  care  whether  you  are  pleased 
or  not."  Indeed,  she  left  me  no  means  of  avoiding  this 
conclusion,  since  at  every  time  that  I  turned  on  her  a  look 
of  anger  or  displeasure,  her  reply  was  to  sing  the  louder. 

'*  And  it  was  only  yesterday,"  thought  I,  "  and  I  dreamed 
that  I  could  be  in  love  with  this  creature,  —  dreamed  that  I 
could  replace  Kate  Herbert's  image  in  my  heart  with  that 
coarse  travesty  of  woman's  gentleness.  Why,  I  might  as 
well  hope  to  make  a  gentleman  of  old  Vaterchen,  and  present 
him  to  the  world  as  a  man  of  station  and  eminence." 

What  an  insane  hope  was  this !  As  well  might  I  shiver 
a  fragment  from  a  stone  on  the  road-side,  and  think  to  give 
it  value  by  having  it  set  as  a  ring.  The  caprice  of  keeping 
them  company  for  a  day  might  be  pardonable.  It  was  the 
whim  of  one  who  is,  above  all,  a  student  of  mankind.  But 
why  continue  the  companionship?  A  little  more  of  such 
intimacy,  and  who  is  to  say  what  I  may  not  imbibe  of  their 


A  SUMPTUOUS  DINNER  AND  AN  EMPTY  POCKETo      285 

habits  and  their  natures ;  and  Potts,  the  man  of  sentiment, 
the  child  of  impulse,  romance,  and  poetry,  become  a  slave 
of  the  ''Ring,"  a  saltimbanque !  Now,  though  I  could  im- 
plicitly rely  upon  the  rigidity  of  my  joints  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  my  ever  displaying  any  feats  of  agility,  I  could 
yet  picture  myself  in  a  long-tailed  blue  coat  and  jack-boots 
walking  round  and  round  in  the  sawdust  circle,  with  four  or 
five  other  creatures  of  the  same  sort,  and  who  have  no  con- 
sciousness of  any  function  till  they  are  made  the  butt  of 
some  extempore  drollery  by  the  clown. 

The  creative  temperament  has  this  great  disadvantage, 
that  one  cannot  always  build  castles,  but  must  occasionally 
construct  hovels,  and  sometimes  even  dungeons  and  jails ; 
and  here  was  I  now,  with  a  large  contract  order  for  this 
species  of  edifice,  and  certainly  I  set  to  work  with  a  will. 
The  impatience  of  my  mind  communicated  itself  to  my  gait, 
and  I  walked  along  at  a  tremendous  rate. 

''I  can  scarcely  keep  up  with  you  at  this  pace,"  said 
Tintefleck ;  ' '  and  see,  we  have  left  poor  Vaterchen  a  long 
way  behind." 

I  made  some  rude  answer,  —  I  know  not  what,  —  and  told 
her  to  come  on. 

"  I  will  not  leave  him,"  said  she,  coming  to  a  halt,  and 
standing  in  a  composed  and  firm  attitude  before  me. 

"  Then  I  will,"  said  I,  angrily.  "  Farewell !  "  And  wav- 
ing my  hand  in  a  careless  adieu,  I  walked  briskly  onward, 
not  even  turning  a  look  on  her  as  I  went.  I  think,  I'm 
almost  certain,  I  heard  a  heavy  sob  close  behind  me,  but  I 
w^ould  not  look  round  for  worlds.  I  was  in  one  of  those 
moods  —  all  weak  men  know  them  well  —  when  a  harsh  or 
an  ungracious  act  appears  something  very  daring  and  coura- 
geous. The  very  pain  my  conduct  gave  myself,  persuaded 
me  that  it  must  be  heroic,  just  as  a  devotee  is  satisfied  after 
a  severe  self-castigation. 

''  Yes,  Potts,"  said  I,  ''  you  are  doing  the  right  thing 
here.  A  little  more  of  such  association  as  this,  and  you 
would  be  little  better  than  themselves.  Besides,  and  above 
all,  you  ought  to  be  '  real.'  Now,  these  are  not  real  any 
more  than  the  tinsel  gems  and  tinfoil  splendors  they  wear  on 
their  tunics."     It  broke  on  me,  too,  like  a  sudden  light,  that 


286  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

to  be  the  fictitious  Potts,  the  many-sided,  many-tinted, — 
what  a  German  would  call  ' '  der  mitviele-f arben  bedeckte 
Potts,"  —  I  ought  to  be  immensely  rich,  all  my  changes  of 
character  requiring  great  resources  and  unlimited  "  proper- 
ties "  as  stage  folk  call  them ;  whereas,  ''  der  echte  wahrhaf- 
tige  Mann  Potts  "  might  be  as  poor  as  Lazarus.  Indeed, 
the  poorer  the  more  real,  since  more  natural. 

While  I  thus  speculated,  I  caught  sight  of  a  man  scaling 
one  of  the  precipitous  paths  by  which  the  winding  road  was 
shortened  for  foot-travellers ;  a  second  glance  showed  me 
that  this  was  Harpar,  who,  with  a  heavy  knapsack,  was  toil- 
ing along.  I  made  a  great  effort  to  come  up  with  him,  but 
when  I  reached  the  high  road,  he  was  still  a  long  distance  in 
front  of  me.  I  could  not,  if  there  had  been  any  one  to 
question  me,  say  why  I  wished  to  overtake  him.  It  was  a 
sort  of  chase  suggested  simply  by  the  object  in  front;  a 
rare  type,  if  we  but  knew  it,  of  one  half  the  pursuits  we 
follow  throughout  life. 

As  I  mounted  the  last  of  these  bypaths  which  led  to  the 
crest  of  the  mountain,  I  felt  certain  that,  with  a  lighter 
equipment,  I  should  come  up  with  him ;  but  scarcely  had  I 
gained  the  top,  than  I  saw  him  striding  away  vigorously  on 
the  road  fully  a  mile  away  beneath  me.  "  He  shall  not  beat 
me,"  said  I;  and  I  increased  my  speed.  It  was  all  in  vain. 
I  could  not  do  it;  and  when  I  drew  nigh  Lindau  at  last, 
very  weary  and  footsore,  the  sun  was  just  sinking  on  the 
western  shore  of  the  lake. 

''Which  is  the  best  inn  here?"  asked  I  of  a  shopkeeper 
who  was  lounging  carelessly  at  his  door. 

"  Yonder,"  said  he,  "  where  you  see  that  post-carriage 
turning  into." 

"  To-night,"  said  I,  "  I  will  be  guilty  of  an  extravagance. 
I  will  treat  myself  to  a  good  supper,  and  an  honest  glass  of 
wine."  And  on  these  hospitable  thoughts  intent  I  unslung 
my  knapsack,  and,  throwing  as  much  of  distinction  as  I  could 
into  my  manner,  strolled  into  the  public  room. 

So  busied  was  the  household  in  attending  to  the  travellers 
who  arrived  "  extra  post,"  that  none  condescended  to  notice 
me,  till  at  last,  as  the  tumult  subsided,  a  venerable  old  waiter 
approached  me,  and  said,  in  a  half  friendly,  half  rebukeful 


A  SUMPTUOUS  DINNER  AND  AN  EMPTY  POCKET.     28T 

tone,  '*It  is  at  the  'Swan'  you  ought  to  be,  my  friend; 
the  next  turning  but  two  to  the  left  hand,  and  you  '11  see  the 
blue  lantern  over  the  gateway." 

''I  mean  to  remain  where  I  am,"  said  I,  imperiously, 
"  and  to  remember  your  impertinence  when  I  am  about  to 
pay  my  bill.     Bring  me  the  carte" 

I  was  overjoyed  to  see  the  confusion  and  shame  of  the  old 
fellow.  He  saw  at  once  the  grievous  error  he  had  committed, 
and  was  so  overwhelmed  that  he  could  not  reply.  Mean- 
while, with  all  the  painstaking  accuracy  of  a  practised 
gourmand^  I  was  making  a  careful  note  of  what  I  wished 
for  supper. 

''Are  you  not  ashamed,"  said  I,  rebukefully,  "to  have 
ortolans  here,  when  you  know  in  your  heart  they  are 
swallows?" 

He  was  so  abject  that  he  could  only  give  a  melancholy 
smile,  as  though  to  say,  "Be  merciful,  and  spare  us!  " 

"  Bohemian  pheasant,  too,  —  come,  come,  this  is  too  bad  ! 
Be  frank  and  confess ;  how  often  has  that  one  speckled  tail 
done  duty  on  a  capon  of  your  own  raising?  " 

"Gracious  Herr!"  muttered  he,  "do  not  crush  us 
altogether." 

I  don't  think  that  he  said  this  in  actual  words,  but  his 
terrified  eyes  and  his  shaking  cheeks  declared  it. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  I,  encouragingly,  "  it  will  not  hurt 
us  to  make  a  sparing  meal  occasionally;  with  the  venison 
and  steak,  the  fried  salmon,  the  duck  with  olives,  and  the 
apricot  tart,  we  wdll  satisfy  appetite,  and  persuade  our- 
selves, if  we  can,  that  we  have  fared  luxuriously." 

"  And  the  wine,  sir?"  asked  he. 

"Ah,  there  we  are  diflScult.  No  little  Baden  vintage,  no 
small  wine  of  the  Bergstrasse,  can  impose  upon  us !  Lieb- 
frauen-milch;  or,  if  you  can  guarantee  it,  Marcobrunner  will 
do  ;  but,  mind,  no  substitutes  !  " 

He  laid  his  hand  over  his  heart  and  bowed  low;  and,  as 
he  moved  away,  I  said  to  myself,  "  What  a  mesmerism 
there  must  be  in  real  money,  since,  even  with  the  mockery 
of  it,  I  have  made  that  creature  a  bond  slave."  Brief  as 
was  the  interval  in  preparing  my  meal,  it  was  enough  to 
allow  me   a  very   considerable   share   of   reflection,   and   I 


288  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

found  that,  do  what  I  would,  a  certain  voice  within  would 
whisper,  "  Where  are  your  fine  resolutions  now,  Potts? 
Is  this  the  life  of  reality  that  you  had  promised  yourself? 
Are  you  not  at  the  old  work  again?  Are  you  not  mas- 
querading it  once  more?  Don't  you  know  well  enough 
that  all  this  pretension  of  yours  is  bad  money,  and  that  at 
the  first  ring  of  it  on  the  counter  you  will  be  found  out?  " 

"  This  you  may  rely  on,  gracious  sir,"  said  the  waiter,  as 
he  laid  a  bottle  on  the  table  beside  me  with  a  careful  hand. 
"It  is  the  orange  seal;  "  and  he  then  added,  in  a  whisper, 
"  taken  from  the  Margrave's  cellar  in  the  revolution  of  '93, 
and  every  flask  of  it  worth  a  province." 

''  We  shall  see  —  we  shall  see,"  said  I,  haughtily ;  "  serve 
the  soup ! " 

If  I  had  been  Belshazzar,  I  believe  I  should  have  eaten 
very  heartily,  and  drunk  my  wine  with  a  great  relish,  not- 
withstanding that  drawn  sword.  I  don't  know  how  it  is, 
but  if  I  can  only  see  the  smallest  bit  of  terra  Jirma  be- 
tween myself  and  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  I  feel  as  though 
I  had  a  whole  vast  prairie  to  range  over.  For  the  life  of 
me  I  cannot  realize  anything  that  may,  or  may  not,  befall 
me  remotely.  "Blue  are  the  hills  far  off,"  says  the  adage; 
and  on  the  converse  of  the  maxim  do  I  aver,  that  faint  are 
all  dangers  that  are  distant.  An  immediate  peril  overwhelms 
me ;  but  I  could  look  forward  to  a  shipwreck  this  day  fort- 
night with  a  fortitude  truly  heroic. 

"This  is  a  nice  old  half-forgotten  sort  of  place,"  thought 
I,  "  a  kind  of  vulgar  Venice,  water- washed,  and  muddy,  and 
dreary,  and  do-nothing.  I  '11  stay  here  for  a  week  or  so ; 
I  '11  give  myself  up  to  the  drowsy  genius  loci;  I'll  Germa- 
nize to  the  top  of  my  l)ent ;  who  is  to  say  what  metaphysi- 
cal melancholy,  dashed  with  a  strange  diabolic  humor,  may 
not  come  of  constantly  feeding  on  this  heavy  cookery,  and 
eternally  listening  to  their  gurgling  gutturals  ?  I  may  come 
out  a  Wieland  or  a  Herder,  with  a  sprinkling  of  Henri  Heine ! 
Yes,"  said  I,  "  this  is  the  true  way  to  approach  life ;  first  of 
all  develop  your  own  faculties,  and  then  mark  how  in  their 
exercise  you  influence  your  fellow-men.  Above  all,  however, 
cultivate  your  individuality,  respect  this  the  greatest  of  all 
the  unities." 


A  SUMPTUOUS  DINNER  AND  AN  EMPTY  POCKET.     289 

*'  t/«,  gnddiger  Herr"  said  the  old  waiter,  as  he  tried  to 
step  away  from  my  grasp,  for,  without  knowing  it,  I  had 
laid  hold  of  him  by  the  wrist  while  I  addressed  to  him 
this  speech.  Desirous  to  re-establish  my  character  for  san- 
ity, somewhat  compromised  by  this  incident,  I  said : 

''Have  you  a  money-changer  in  these  parts?  If  so,  let 
me  have  some  silver  for  this  English  gold."  I  put  my 
hand  in  my  pocket  for  my  purse ;  not  finding  it,  I  tried 
another  and  another.  I  ransacked  them  all  over  again, 
patted  myself,  shook  my  coat,  looked  into  my  hat,  and 
then,  with  a  sudden  flash  of  memory,  I  bethought  me  that 
I  had  left  it  with  Catinka,  and  was  actually  without  one 
sou  in  the  world !  I  sat  down,  pale  and  almost  fainting, 
and  my  arms  fell  powerless  at  my  sides. 

"  I  have  lost  my  purse !  "  gasped  I  out,  at  length. 

"  Indeed !  "  said  the  old  man,  but  with  a  tone  of  such  pal- 
pable scorn  that  it  actually  sickened  me. 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  with  all  that  force  which  is  the  peculiar  pre- 
rogative of  truth;  "  and  in  it  all  the  money  I  possessed." 

"  I  have  no  doubt  of  it,"  rejoined  he,  in  the  same  dry  tone 
as  before. 

''  You  have  no  doubt  of  what,  old  man?  Or  what  do  you 
mean  by  the  supercilious  quietness  with  which  you  assent  to 
my  misfortune?     Send  the  landlord  to  me." 

"I  will  do  more!  I  will  send  the  police,"  said  he,  as  he 
shuffled  out  of  the  room. 

I  have  met  scores  of  men  on  my  way  through  life  who 
would  not  have  felt  the  slightest  embarrassment  in  such 
a  situation  as  mine,  fellows  so  accustomed  to  shipwreck, 
that  the  cry  of  "Breakers  ahead!"  or  ''Man  the  boats," 
would  have  occasioned  neither  excitement  nor  trepidation. 
What  stuff  they  are  made  of  instead  of  nerves,  muscles, 
and  arteries,  I  cannot  imagine,  since,  when  the  question 
is  self-presers^ation,  how  can  it  possibly  be  more  imminent 
than  when  not  alone  your  animal  existence  is  jeopardized, 
but  the  dearer  and  more  precious  life  of  fame  and  charac- 
ter is  in  peril? 

For  a  moment  I  thought  that  though  this  besotted  old 
fool  of  a  waiter  might  suspect  my  probity  the  more  clear- 
sighted  intelligence   of  the  landlord  would  at  once  recog- 

19 


290  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

nize  my  honest  nature,  and  with  the  confidence  of  a  noble 
conviction  say,  ''  Don't  tell  me  that  the  man  yonder  is  a 
knave.  I  read  him  very  differently.  Tell  me  your  story, 
sir."  And  then  I  would  tell  it.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
my  speculation  might  have  been  verified  had  it  not  been  that 
it  was  a  landlady  and  not  a  landlord  who  swayed  the  desti- 
nies of  the  inn.  Oh,  what  a  wise  invention  of  our  ancestors 
was  the  Salique  law  !  How  justly  they  appreciated  the  un- 
bridled rashness  of  the  female  nature  in  command !  How 
well  they  understood  the  one-idea'd  impetuosity  with  which 
they  rush  to  wrong  conclusions ! 

Until  I  listened  to  the  Frau  von  Wintner,  I  imagined  the 
German  language  somewhat  weak  in  the  matter  of  epithets. 
She  undeceived  me  on  this  head,  showing  resources  of 
abusive  import  that  would  have  done  credit  to  a  Homeric 
hero.  Having  given  me  full  ten  minutes  of  a  strong  vocab- 
ulary, she  then  turned  on  the  waiter,  scornfully  asking  him 
if,  at  his  time  of  life,  he  ought  to  have  let  himself  be  im- 
posed upon  by  so  palpable  and  undeniable  a  swindler  as  my- 
self? She  clearly  showed  that  there  was  no  extenuation  of 
his  fault,  that  rogue  and  vagabond  had  been  written  on  my 
face,  and  inscribed  in  my  manner ;  not  to  mention  that  I  had 
followed  the  well-beaten  track  of  all  my  fraternity  in  fraud, 
and  ordered  everything  the  most  costly  the  h©use  could  com- 
mand. In  fact,  so  strenuously  did  she  urge  this  point,  and 
so  eager  did  she  seem  about  enforcing  a  belief  in  her  state- 
ment, that  I  almost  began  to  suspect  she  might  suggest  an 
anatomical  examination  of  me  to  sustain  her  case.  Had  she 
been  even  less  eloquent,  the  audience  would  still  have  been 
with  her,  for  it  is  a  curious  but  unquestionable  fact  that 
in  all  little  visited  localities  the  stranger  is  ungraciously 
regarded  and  ill  looked  on. 

Whenever  I  attempted  to  interpose  a  word  in  my  defence, 
I  was  overborne  at  once.  Indeed,  public  opinion  was  so 
decidedly  against  me,  that  I  felt  very  happy  in  thinking 
Lynch  law  was  not  a  Teutonic  institution.  The  room  was 
now  filled  with  retainers  of  the  inn,  strangers,  town-folk,  and 
police,  and,  to  judge  by  the  violence  of  their  gestures  and 
the  loud  tones  of  their  voices,  one  would  have  pronounced 
me  a  criminal  of  the  worst  sort. 


A  SUMPTUOUS  DINNER  AND  AN  EMPTY  POCKET.      291 

"  But  what  is  it  that  he  has  done?  What  *s  his  offence? " 
I  heard  a  voice  say  from  the  crowd,  and  I  fancied  his  accent 
was  that  of  a  foreigner.  A  perfect  inundation  of  vitupera- 
tive accusation,  however,  now  poured  in,  and  I  could  gather 
no  more.  The  turmoil  and  uproar  rose  and  fell,  and  fell  and 
rose  again,  till  at  last,  my  patience  utterly  exhausted,  I 
burst  out  into  a  very  violent  attack  on  the  uncivilized  habits 
of  a  people  who  could  thus  conduct  themselves  to  a  man 
totally  unconvicted  of  any  offence. 

''  Well,  well,  don't  give  way  to  passion;  don't  let  temper 
get  the  better  of  you,"  said  a  fat,  citizen-like  man  beside 
me.  "  The  stranger  there  has  just  paid  for  what  you  have 
had,  and  all  is  settled." 

I  thought  I  should  have  fainted  as  I  heard  these  words. 
Indeed,  until  that  instant,  I  had  never  brought  home  to  my 
own  mind  the  utter  destitution  of  my  state ;  but  now,  there 
I  stood,  realizing  to  myself  the  condition  of  one  of  those  we 
read  of  in  our  newspapers  as  having  received  five  shillings 
from  the  poor-box,  while  D  490  is  deputed  to  "make  in- 
quiries after  him  at  his  lodgings,"  and  learn  particulars  of 
his  life  and  habits.  I  could  have  borne  being  sent  to  prison. 
I  could  have  endured  any  amount  of  severity,  so  long  as  I 
revolted  against  its  injustice;  but  the  sense  of  being  an 
object  of  actual  charity  crushed  me  utterly,  and  I  could 
nearly  have  cried  with  vexation. 

By  degrees  the  crowd  thinned  off,  and  I  found  myself  sit- 
ting alone  beside  the  table  where  T  had  dined,  with  the  hate- 
ful old  waiter,  as  though  standing  sentinel  over  me. 

''  Who  is  this  person,"  asked  I,  haughtily,  "  who,  with  an 
indelicate  generosity,  has  presumed  to  interfere  with  the  con- 
cerns of  a  stranger  ?  " 

''The  gracious  nobleman  who  paid  for  your  dinner  is 
now  eating  his  own  at  No.  8,"  said  the  old  monster  with  a 
grin. 

"  I  will  call  upon  him  when  he  has  dined,"  said  I,  trans- 
fixing the  wretch  with  a  look  so  stern,  as  to  make  rejoinder 
impossible ;  and  then,  throwing  my  plaid  wrapper  and  my 
knapsack  on  a  table  near,  I  strolled  out  into  the  street. 

Lindau  is  a  picturesque  old  place,  as  it  stands  rising,  as 
it  were,  out  of  the  very  waters  of  the  Lake  of  Constance, 


292  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

and  the  great  mountain  of  the  Sentis,  with  its  peak  of  six 
thousand  feet  high,  is  a  fine  object  in  the  distance;  while 
the  gorge  of  the  Upper  Rhine  offers  many  a  grand  effect 
of  Alpine  scenery,  not  the  less  striking  when  looked  at 
with  a  setting  sun,  which  made  the  foreground  more  massive 
and  the  hill  tops  golden ;  and  yet  I  carried  that  in  my  heart 
which  made  the  whole  picture  as  dark  and  dreary  as  Poussin's 
Deluge.  It  was  all  very  beautiful.  There,  was  the  snow- 
white  summit,  reflected  in  the  still  water  of  the  lake ;  there, 
the  rich  wood,  browned  with  autumn,  and  now  tinted  with  a 
golden  glory,  richer  again  ;  there  were  the  white-sailed  boats, 
asleep  on  the  calm  surface,  streaked  with  the  variegated 
light  of  the  clouds  above,  and  it  was  peaceful  as  it  was 
picturesque.  But  do  what  I  could,  I  could  not  enjoy  it,  and 
all  because  I  had  lost  my  purse,  just  as  if  certain  fragments 
of  a  yellow  metal  the  more  or  the  less,  ought  to  obscure 
eyesight,  lull  the  sense  of  hearing,  and  make  a  man's  whole 
existence  miserable.  ''And  after  all,"  thought  I,  "  Catinka 
will  be  here  this  evening,  or  to-morrow  at  furthest.  Vater- 
chen  was  tired,  and  could  not  come  on.  It  was  /  who  left 
them;  I,  in  my  impatience  and  ill-humor.  The  old  man 
doubtless  knew  nothing  of  the  purse  confided  to  the  girl,  nor 
is  it  at  all  needful  that  he  should.  They  will  certainly 
follow  me,  and  why,  for  the  mere  inconvenience  of  an 
hour  or  two,  should  I  persist  in  seeing  the  whole  world  so 
crape-covered  and  sad-looking?  Surely  this  is  not  the  phi- 
losophy my  knowledge  of  life  has  taught  me.  I  ought  to 
know  and  feel  that  these  daily  accidents  are  but  stones  on 
the  road  one  travels.  They  may,  perchance,  wound  the  foot 
or  damage  the  shoe,  but  they  rarely  delay  the  journey,  if 
the  traveller  be  not  faint-hearted  and  craven.  I  will  treat 
the  whole  incident  in  a  higher  spirit.  I  will  wait  for 
their  coming  in  that  tranquil  and  assured  condition  of 
mind  which  is  the  ripe  fruit  of  a  real  insight  into  mankind. 
Pitt  said,  after  long  years  of  experience,  that  there  was 
more  of  good  than  of  bad  in  human  nature.  Let  it  be 
the  remark  of  some  future  biographer  that  Potts  agreed  with 
him." 

When  I  got  back  to  the  inn,  I  was  somewhat  puzzled  what 
to  do.     It  would  have   been  impossible  with  any  success 


A  SUMPTUOUS  DINNER  AND  AN  EMPTY  POCKET.      293 

to  have  resumed  my  former  tone  of  command,  and  for  the 
life  of  me  I  could  not  bring  myself  down  to  anything  like 
entreaty.  While  I  thus  stood,  uncertain  how  to  act,  the  old 
waiter  approached  me,  almost  courteously,  and  said  my  room 
was  ready  for  me  when  I  wished  it. 

"  I  will  first  of  all  wait  upon  the  traveller  in  No.  8," 
said  I. 

"He  has  retired  for  the  night,"  was  the  answer.  '^He 
seems  in  very  delicate  health,  and  the  fatigue  of  the  journey 
has  overcome  him." 

*'  To-morrow  will  do,  then,"  said  I  easily  ;  and  not  ventur- 
ing upon  an  inquiry  as  to  the  means  by  which  my  room 
was  at  my  disposal,  I  took  my  candle  and  mounted  the 
stairs. 

As  I  lay  down  in  my  bed,  I  resolved  I  would  take  a 
calm  survey  of  my  past  life:  what  1  had  done,  what  I 
had  failed  to  do,  what  were  the  guiding  principles  which 
directed  me,  and  whither  they  were  likely  to  bear  me. 
But  scarcely  had  I  administered  to  myself  the  preliminary 
oath  to  tell  nothing  but  the  truth,  than  I  fell  off  sound 
asleep. 

My  first  waking  thought  the  next  morning  was  to  inquire 
if  two  persons  had  arrived  in  search  of  me  —  an  elderly  man 
and  a  young  woman.  I  described  them.  None  such  had 
been  seen.  ^'  They  will  have  sought  shelter  in  some  of  the 
humbler  inns,"  thought  I;  "I'll  up  and  look  after  them." 
I  searched  the  town  from  end  to  end ;  I  visited  the  meanest 
halting-places  of  the  wayfarer ;  I  inquired  at  the  police 
bureaus  —  at  the  gate  —  but  none  had  arrived  who  bore  any 
resemblance  to  those  I  asked  after.  I  was  vexed  —  only 
vexed  at  first  —  but  gradually  I  found  myself  growing  dis- 
trustful. The  suspicion  that  the  ice  is  not  strong  enough 
for  your  weight,  and  then,  close  upon  that,  the  shock  of 
fear  that  strikes  you  when  the  loud  crash  of  a  fracture  breaks 
on  the  ear,  are  mere  symbols  of  what  one  suffers  at  the  first 
glimmering  of  a  betrayal.  I  repelled  the  thought  with  in- 
dignation ;  but  certain  thoughts  there  are  which,  when  turned 
out,  stand  like  sturdy  duns  at  the  gate,  and  will  not  be  sent 
away.  This  was  one  of  them.  It  followed  me  wherever  I 
went,  importunately  begging  for  a  hearing,  and  menacing 


294  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

me  with  sad  consequences  if  I  were  obdurate  enough  to 
listen.  ''You  are  a  simpleton,  Potts,  a  weak,  foolish,  err- 
ing creature  !  and  you  select  as  the  objects  of  your  confidence 
those  whose  lives  of  accident  present  exactly  as  the  most 
irresistible  of  all  temptations  to  them  —  the  Dupe !  How 
they  must  have  laughed  —  how  they  must  yet  be  laughing 
at  you !  How  that  old  drunken  fox  will  chuckle  over 
your  simplicity,  and  the  minx  Tintefleck  indulge  herself 
in  caricatures  of  your  figure  and  face !  I  wonder  how 
much  of  truth  there  was  in  that  old  fellow's  story?  Was 
he  ever  the  syndic  of  his  village,  or  was  the  whole  narra- 
tive a  mere  fiction  like  —  like  —  "  I  covered  my  face  with 
my  hands  in  shame  as  I  muttered  out,  ' '  like  one  of  your 
own.  Potts?" 

I  was  very  miserable,  for  I  could  no  longer  stand  proudly 
forward  as  the  prosecutor,  but  was  obliged  to  steal  ignomini- 
ously  into  the  dock  and  take  my  place  beside  the  other  pris- 
oners. What  became  of  all  my  honest  indignation  as  I 
bethought  me,  that  I,  of  all  men,  could  never  arraign  the 
counterfeit  and  the  sham? 

"  Let  them  go,  then,"  cried  I,  *'  and  prosper  if  they  can  ; 
I  will  never  pursue  them.  I  will  even  try  and  remember 
what  pleased  and  interested  me  in  their  fortunes,  and,  if  it 
may  be,  forget  that  they  have  carried  away  my  little  all  of 
wealth." 

A  loud  tramping  of  post-horses,  and  the  cracking  of  whips, 
drew  me  to  the  window,  and  I  saw  beneath  in  the  court-yard, 
a  handsome  travelling  britschka  getting  ready  for  the  road. 
Oh,  how  suggestive  is  a  well  cushioned  caleche,  with  its 
many  appliances  of  ease  and  luxury,  its  trim  imperials,  its 
scattered  litter  of  wrappers  and  guide-books,  —  all  little 
episodes  of  those  who  are  to  journey  in  it! 

"Who  are  the  happy  souls  about  to  travel  thus  enjoy- 
ably?"  thought  I,  as  I  saw  the  waiter  and  the  courier  dis- 
cussing the  most  convenient  spot  to  deposit  a  small  hamper 
with  eatables  for  the  road ;  and  then  I  heard  the  landlady's 
voice  call  out : 

''  Take  up  the  bill  to  No.  8." 

So,  then,  this  was  No.  8  who  was  fast  getting  ready  to 
depart,  —  No.  8  who  had  interposed  in  my  favor  the  evening 


A  SUMPTUOUS  DINNER  AND  AN  EMPTY  POCKET.      295 

before,  and  towards  whom  a  night's  rest  and  some  reflection 
had  modified  my  feelings  and  changed  my  sentiments  very 
remarkably. 

"  Will  you  ask  the  gentleman  at  No.  8  if  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  speak  with  him  ?  "  said  I  to  the  man  who  took  in 
the  bill. 

"  He  '11  scarcely  see  you  now,  — he 's  just  going  off." 

"  Give  the  message  as  I  speak  it,"  said  I ;  and  he  dis- 
appeared. 

There  was  a  long  interval  before  he  issued  forth  again, 
and  when  he  did  so  he  was  flurried  and  excited.  Some 
overcharges  had  been  taken  off  and  some  bad  money  in 
change  to  be  replaced  by  honest  coin,  and  it  was  evident 
that  various  little  well-intended  rogueries  had  not  achieved 
their  usual  success. 

"  Go  in,  you  '11  find  him  there,"  said  the  waiter,  insolently, 
as  he  went  down  to  have  the  bill  rectified. 

I  knocked,  a  full  round  voice  cried,  *'  Come  in!"  and  I 
entered. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

MARY   CROFTOn's    COMMISSION. 

"Well,  what  next?  Have  you  bethought  you  of  anything 
more  to  charge  me  with  ?  "  cried  a  large  full  man,  whose 
angry  look  and  manner  showed  how  he  resented  these 
cheatings. 

I  staggered  back  sick  and  faint,  for  the  individual  before 
me  was  Crofton,  my  kind  host  of  long  ago  in  Ireland,  and 
from  whose  hospitable  roof  I  had  taken  such  an  uncere- 
monious departure. 

*'Who  are  you?  "  cried  he,  again.  ''I  had  hoped  to  have 
paid  everything  and  everybody.     Who  are  you  ?  " 

Wishing  to  retire  unrecognized,  I  stammered  out  some- 
thing very  unintelligibly  indeed  about  ray  gratitude,  and 
my  hope  for  a  pleasant  journey  to  him,  retreating  all  the 
while  towards  the  door. 

"It 's  all  very  well  to  wish  the  traveller  a  pleasant  jour- 
ney," said  he,  "but  you  innkeepers  ought  to  bear  in  mind 
that  no  man's  journey  is  rendered  more  agreeable  by 
roguery.  This  house  is  somewhat  dear-er  than  the  '  Claren- 
don '  in  London,  or  the  '  Hotel  du  Rhin '  at  Paris.  Now, 
there  might  be,  perhaps,  some  pretext  to  make  a  man  pay 
smartly  who  travels  post,  and  has  two  or  three  servants 
with  him,  but  what  excuse  can  you  make  for  charging  some 
poor  devil  of  a  foot  traveller,  taking  his  humble  meal  in 
the  common  room,  and,  naturally  enough,  of  the  commonest 
fare,  for  making  him  pay  eight  florins  —  eight  florins  and 
some  kreutzers  —  for  his  dinner?  Why,  our  dinner  here 
for  two  people  was  handsomely  paid  at  six  florins  a  head, 
and  yet  you  bring  in  a  bill  of  eight  florins  against  that  poor 
wretch." 


MARY  CROFTON'S  COMMISSION.  297 

I  saw  now  that,  what  between  the  blinding  effects  of  his 
indignation,  and  certain  changes  which  time  and  the  road 
had  worked  in  my  appearance,  it  was  more  than  probable 
I  should  escape  undetected,  and  so  I  affected  to  busy  myself 
with  some  articles  of  his  luggage  that  lay  scattered  about 
the  room  until  I  could  manage  to  slip  away. 

"Touch  nothing,  my  good  fellow!"  cried  he,  angrily; 
"send  my  own  people  here  for  these  things.  Let  my 
courier  come  here  —  or  my  valet !  " 

This  was  too  good  an  opportunity  to  be  thrown  away, 
and  I  made  at  once  for  the  door ;  but  at  the  same  instant  it 
was  opened,  and  Mary  Crofton  stood  before  me.  One 
glance  showed  me  that  I  was  discovered ;  and  there  I  stood, 
speechless  with  shame  and  confusion.  Rallying,  however, 
after  a  moment,  I  whispered,  "Don't  betray  me,"  and  tried 
to  pass  out.  Instead  of  minding  my  entreaty,  she  set  her 
back  to  the  door,  and  laughingly  cried  out  to  her  brother,  — 

"Don't  you  know  whom  we  have  got  here?" 

"What  do  you  mean?  "  exclaimed  he. 

"Cannot  you  recognize  an  old  friend,  notwithstanding  all 
his  efforts  to  cut  us  ?  " 

"Why  —  what  —  surely  it  can't  be  —  it 's  not  possible  — 
eh  ? "  And  by  this  time  he  had  wheeled  me  round  to  the 
strong  light  of  the  window,  and  then,  with  a  loud  burst,  he 
cried  out,  "Potts,  by  all  that's  ragged!  Potts  himself! 
Why,  old  fellow,  what  could  you  mean  by  wanting  to 
escape  us?"  and  he  wrung  my  hand  with  a  cordial  shake 
that  at  once  brought  the  blood  back  to  my  heart,  while  his 
sister  completed  my  happiness  by  saying,  — 

"If  you  only  knew  all  the  schemes  we  have  planned  to 
catch  you,  you  would  certainly  not  have  tried  to  avoid  us." 

I  made  an  effort  to  say  something,  —  anything,  in  short, 
—  but  not  a  word  would  come.  If  I  was  overjoyed  at  the 
warmth  of  their  greeting,  I  was  no  less  overwhelmed  with 
shame ;  and  there  I  stood,  looking  very  pitiably  from  one  to 
the  other,  and  almost  wishing  that  I  might  faint  outright 
and  so  finish  my  misery. 

With  a  woman's  fine  tact,  Mary  Crofton  seemed  to  read 
the  meaning  of  my  suffering,  and,  whispering  one  word  in 
her  brother's  ear,  she  slipped  away  and  left  us  alone  together 


298  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"Come,"  said  he,  good-naturedly,  as  he  drew  his  arm 
inside  of  mine,  and  led  me  up  and  down  the  room,  "  tell  me 
all  about  it.  How  have  you  come  here?  What  are  you 
doing  ?  " 

I  have  not  the  faintest  recollection  of  what  I  said.  I 
know  that  I  endeavored  to  take  up  my  story  from  the  day  I 
had  last  seen  him,  bat  it  must  have  proved  a  very  strange 
and  bungling  narrative,  from  the  questions  which  he  was 
forced  occasionally  to  put,  in  order  to  follow  me  out. 

"Well,"  said  he,  at  last,  "I  will  own  to  you  that,  after 
your  abrupt  departure,  I  was  sorely  puzzled  what  to  make 
of  you,  and  I  might  have  remained  longer  in  the  same  state 
of  doubt,  when  a  chance  visit  that  I  made  to  Dublin  led  me 
to  Dycer's,  and  there,  by  a  mere  accident,  I  heard  of  you, 
—  heard  who  you  were,  and  where  your  father  lived.  I  went 
at  once  and  called  upon  him,  my  object  being  to  learn  if 
he  had  any  tidings  of  you,  and  where  you  then  were.  I 
found  him  no  better  informed  than  myself.  He  showed 
me  a  few  lines  you  had  written  on  the  morning  you  had 
left  home,  stating  that  you  would  probably  be  absent  some 
days,  and  might  be  even  weeks,  but  that  since  that  date 
nothing  had  been  heard  of  you.  He  seemed  vexed  and  dis- 
pleased, but  not  uneasy  or  apprehensive  about  your  absence, 
and  the  same  tone  I  observed  in  your  college  tutor.  Dr. 
Tobin.  He  said,  '  Potts  will  come  back,  sir,  one  of  these 
days,  and  not  a  whit  wiser  than  he  went.  His  self-esteem 
is  to  his  capacity  in  the  reduplicate  ratio  of  the  inverse 
proportion  of  his  ability,  and  he  will  be  always  a  fool.'  I 
wrote  to  various  friends  of  ours  travelling  about  the  world, 
but  none  had  met  with  you ;  and  at  last,  when  about  to  come 
abroad  myself,  I  called  again  on  your  father,  and  found 
him  just  re-married." 

"Re-married! " 

"Yes!  he  was  lonely,  he  said,  and  wanted  companion- 
ship, and  so  on;  and  all  I  could  obtain  from  him  was  a 
note  for  a  hundred  pounds,  and  a  promise  that,  if  you  came 
back  within  the  year,  you  should  share  the  business  of  his 
shop  with  him." 

"Never!  never!"  said  I.  "Potts  maybe  the  fool  they 
deem  him,  but  there  are  instincts  and  promptings  in  his 


MARY  CROFTON'S  COMMISSION.  299 

secret  heart  that  they  know  nothing  of.  I  will  never  go 
back.     Go  on." 

''I  now  come  to  my  own  story.  I  left  Ireland  a  day  or 
two  after  and  came  to  England,  where  business  detained 
me  some  weeks.  My  uncle  had  died  and  left  me  his  heir, 
—  not,  indeed,  so  rich  as  I  had  expected,  but  very  well  off 
for  a  man  who  had  passed  his  life  on  very  moderate  means. 
There  were  a  few  legacies  to  be  paid,  and  one  which  he 
especially  intrusted  to  me  by  a  secret  paper,  in  the  hope 
that,  by  delicate  and  judicious  management,  I  might  be  able 
to  persuade  the  person  in  whose  interest  it  was  bequeathed 
to  accept.  It  was,  indeed,  a  task  of  no  common  difficulty, 
the  legatee  being  the  widow  of  a  man  who  had,  by  my 
uncle's  cruelty,  been  driven  to  destroy  himself.  It  is  a 
long  story,  which  I  cannot  now  enter  upon;  enough  that  I 
say  it  had  been  a  trial  of  strength  between  two  very  vindic- 
tive unyielding  men  which  should  crush  the  other,  and  my 
uncle,  being  the  richer,  —  and  not  from  any  other  reason,  — 
conquered. 

''  The  victory  was  a  very  barren  one.  It  imbittered  every 
hour  of  his  life  after,  and  the  only  reparation  in  his  power, 
he  attempted  on  his  death-bed,  which  was  to  settle  an 
annuity  on  the  family  of  the  man  he  had  ruined.  I  found 
out  at  once  where  they  lived,  and  set  about  effecting  this 
delicate  charge.  I  will  not  linger  over  my  failure ;  but  it 
was  complete.  The  family  was  in  actual  distress,  but 
nothing  would  induce  them  to  listen  to  the  project  of  assist- 
ance ;  and,  in  fact,  their  indignation  compelled  me  to  retire 
from  the  attempt  in  despair.  My  sister  did  her  utmost  in 
the  cause,  but  equally  in  vain,  and  we  prepared  to  leave  the 
place,  much  depressed  and  cast  down  by  our  failure.  It 
was  on  the  last  evening  of  our  stay  at  the  inn  of  the  little 
village,  a  townsman  of  the  place,  whom  I  had  employed  to 
aid  my  attempt  by  his  personal  influence  with  the  family, 
asked  to  see  me  and  speak  with  me  in  private. 

"He  appeared  to  labor  under  considerable  agitation,  and 
opened  our  interview  by  bespeaking  my  secrecy  as  to  what 
he  was  about  to  communicate.  It  was  to  this  purport :  A 
friend  of  his  own,  engaged  in  the  Baltic  trade,  had  just 
declared  to  him  that  he  had  seen  W.,  the  person  I  allude  to, 


300  A  DAY'S  EIDE. 

alive  and  well,  walking  on  the  quay  at  Riga,  that  he  traced 
him  to  his  lodging ;  but,  on  inquiring  for  him  the  next  day, 
he  was  not  to  be  found,  and  it  was  then  ascertained  that  he 
had  left  the  city.  W.  was,  it  would  seem,  a  man  easily 
recognized,  and  the  other  declared  that  there  could  not  be 
the  slightest  doubt  of  his  identity.  The  question  was  a 
grave  one  how  to  act,  since  the  assurance  company  with 
which  his  life  was  insured  were  actually  engaged  in  discuss- 
ing the  propriety  of  some  compromise  by  paying  to  the 
family  a  moiety  of  the  policy,  and  a  variety  of  points  arose 
out  of  this  contingency ;  for  while  it  would  have  been  a  great 
cruelty  to  have  conveyed  hopes  to  the  family  that  might 
by  possibility  not  be  realized,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
have  induced  them  to  adopt  a  course  on  the  hypothesis  of 
his  death  when  they  believed  him  still  living,  was  almost 
as  bad. 

*'I  thought  for  a  long  while  over  the  matter,  and  with 
my  sister's  counsel  to  aid  me,  I  determined  that  we  should 
come  abroad  and  seek  out  this  man,  trusting  that,  if  we 
found  him,  we  could  induce  him  to  accept  of  the  legacy 
which  his  family  rejected.  We  obtained  every  clew  we 
could  think  of  to  his  detection.  A  perfect  description  of 
him,  in  voice,  look,  and  manner;  a  copy  of  his  portrait, 
and  a  specimen  of  his  handwriting;  and  then  we  bethought 
ourselves  of  interesting  you  in  the  search.  You  were  ram- 
bling about  the  world  in  that  idle  and  desultory  way  in 
which  any  sort  of  a  pursuit  might  be  a  boon,  — as  often  in 
the  by-paths  as  on  the  high-roads;  you  might  chance  to 
hit  off  this  discovery  in  some  remote  spot,  or,  at  all  events, 
find  some  clew  to  it.  In  a  word,  we  grew  to  believe  that, 
with  you  to  aid  us,  we  should  get  to  the  bottom  of  this 
mystery;  and  now  that  by  a  lucky  chance  we  have  met 
you,  our  hopes  are  all  the  stronger." 

"You'll  think  it  strange,"  said  I,  "but  I  already  know 
something  of  this  story;  the  man  you  allude  to  was  Sir 
Samuel  Whalley." 

"How  on  earth  have  you  guessed  that?  " 

"I  came  by  the  knowledge  on  a  railroad  journey,  where 
my  fellow-passengers  talked  over  the  event,  and  I  subse- 
quently travelled  with   Sir   Samuel's  daughter,  who   came 


MARY  CROFTON'S  COMMISSION.  301 

abroad  to  fill  the  station  of  a  companion  to  an  elderly  lady. 
She  called  herself  Miss  Herbert." 

"Exactly!  The  widow  resumed  her  family  name  after 
W.'s  suicide,  —  if  it  were  a  suicide." 

"How  singular  to  think  that  you  should  have  chanced 
upon  this  link  of  the  chain!     And  do  you  know  her?  " 

"Intimately;  we  were  fellow-ti'avellers  for  some  days." 

"And  where  is  she  now?" 

"  She  is,  at  this  moment,  at  a  villa  on  the  Lake  of  Como, 
living  with  a  Mrs.  Keats,  the  sister  of  her  Majesty's  Envoy 
at  Kalbbratonstadt." 

"You  are  marvellously  accurate  in  this  narrative.  Potts," 
said  he,  laughing;  "the  impression  made  on  you  by  this 
young  lady  can  scarcely  have  been  a  transient  one." 

I  suppose  I  grew  very  red,  — I  felt  that  I  was  much  con- 
fused by  this  remark,  —  and  I  turned  away  to  conceal  my 
emotion.  Crofton  was  too  delicate  to  take  any  advantage 
of  my  distress,  and  merely  added,  — 

"From  having  known  her,  you  will  naturally  devote  your- 
self with  more  ardor  to  serve  her.  May  we  then  count 
upon  your  assistance  in  our  project?  " 

"That  you  may,"  said  I.  "From  this  hour  I  devote  my- 
self to  it." 

Crofton  at  once  proposed  that  I  should  order  my  luggage 
to  be  placed  on  his  carriage,  and  start  off  with  them;  but 
I  firmly  opposed  this  plan.  First  of  all,  I  had  no  luggage, 
and  had  no  fancy  to  confess  as  much;  secondly,  I  resolved 
to  give  at  least  one  day  for  Vaterchen's  arrival,  —  I  'd  have 
given  a  month  rather  than  come  down  to  the  dreary  thought 
of  his  being  a  knave,  and  Tintefleck  a  cheat!  In  fact,  I  felt 
that  if  I  were  to  begin  any  new  project  in  life  with  so  slack 
an  experience,  that  every  step  I  took  would  be  marked  with 
distrust,  and  tarnished  with  suspicion.  1  therefore  pre- 
tended to  Crofton  that  I  had  given  rendezvous  to  a  friend  at 
Lindau,  and  could  not  leave  without  waiting  for  him.  I  am 
not  very  sure  that  he  believed  me,  but  he  was  most  careful 
in  not  dropping  a  word  that  might  show  incredulity;  and 
once  more  we  addressed  ourselves  to  the  grand  project 
before  us. 

"Come  in,  Mary!"  cried  he,  suddenly  rising   from  his 


302  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

chair,  and  going  to  meet  her.  ''Come  in,  and  help  us  by 
your  good  counsel." 

It  was  not  possible  to  receive  me  with  more  kindness  than 
she  showed.  Had  I  been  some  old  friend  who  came  to  meet 
them  there  by  appointment,  her  manner  could  not  have  been 
more  courteous  nor  more  easy ;  and  when  she  learned  from 
her  brother  how  warmly  I  had  associated  myself  in  this  plan, 
she  gave  me  one  of  her  pleasantest  smiles,  and  said,  — 

"I  was  not  mistaken  in  you." 

With  a  great  map  of  Europe  before  us  on  the  table,  we 
proceeded  to  plan  a  future  line  of  operations.  We  agreed 
to  take  certain  places,  each  of  us,  and  to  meet  at  certain 
others,  to  compare  notes  and  report  progress.  We  scarcely 
permitted  ourselves  to  feel  any  great  confidence  of  success, 
but  we  all  concurred  in  the  notion  that  some  lucky  hazard 
might  do  for  us  more  than  all  our  best-devised  schemes 
could  accomplish;  and,  at  last,  it  was  settled  that,  while 
they  took  Southern  Germany  and  the  Tyrol,  I  should  ramble 
about  through  Savoy  and  Upper  Italy,  and  our  meeting- 
place  be  in  Italy.  The  great  railway  centres,  where  Eng- 
lishmen of  every  class  and  gradation  were  much  employed, 
offered  the  best  prospect  of  meeting  with  the  object  of  our 
search,  and  these  were  precisely  the  sort  of  places  such  a 
man  would  be  certain  to  resort  to. 

Our  discussion  lasted  so  long  that  the  Croftons  put  off 
their  journey  till  the  following  day,  and  we  dined  all  to- 
gether very  happily,  never  wearied  of  talking  over  the  plan 
before  us,  and  each  speculating  as  to  what  share  of  acute- 
ness  he  could  contribute  to  the  common  stock  of  investiga- 
tion. It  was  when  Crofton  left  the  room  to  search  for  the 
portrait  of  Whalley,  that  Mary  sat  down  at  my  side,  and 
said,  — 

"I  have  been  thinking  for  some  time  over  a  project  in 
which  you  can  aid  me  greatly.  My  brother  tells  me  that 
you  are  known  to  Miss  Herbert.  Now  I  want  to  write  to 
her;  I  want  to  tell  her  that  there  is  one  who,  belonging  to 
a  family  from  which  hers  has  suffered  heavily,  desires  to 
expiate  so  far,  maybe,  the  great  wrong,  and,  if  she  will 
permit  it,  to  be  her  friend.  While  I  can  in  a  letter  explain 
what  I  feel  on  this  score,  I  am  well  aware  how  much  aid  it 


MARY  CROFTON'S  COMMISSION.  303 

would  afford  me  to  have  the  personal  corroboration  of  one 
who  could  say,  '  She  who  writes  this  is  not  altogether  un- 
worthy of  your  affection ;  do  not  reject  the  offer  she  makes 
you,  or,  at  least,  reflect  and  think  over  it  before  you  refuse 
it.'     Will  you  help  me  so  far?" 

My  heart  bounded  with  delight  as  I  first  listened  to  her 
plan ;  it  was  only  a  moment  before  that  I  remembered  how 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  it  would  be  for  me  to  approach 
Miss  Herbert  once  more.  How  or  in  what  character  could 
I  seek  her?  To  appear  before  her  in  any  feigned  part 
would  be,  under  the  circumstances,  ignoble  and  unworthy, 
and  yet  was  I,  out  of  any  merely  personal  consideration, 
any  regard  for  the  poor  creature  Potts,  to  forego  the  inter- 
ests, mayhap  the  whole  happiness,  of  one  so  immeasurably 
better  and  worthier?  Would  not  any  amount  of  shame  and 
exposure  to  myself  be  a  cheap  price  for  even  a  small  quan- 
tity of  benefit  bestowed  on  her !  What  signified  it  that  I 
was  poor  and  ragged  —  unknown,  unrecognized  —  if  she 
were  to  be  the  gainer?  Would  not,  in  fact,  the  very  sacri- 
fice of  self  in  the  affair  be  ennobling  and  elevating  to  me, 
and  would  I  not  stand  better  in  my  own  esteem  for  this  one 
honest  act,  than  I  had  ever  done  after  any  mock  success  or 
imaginary  victory  ? 

"I  think  I  can  guess  why  you  hesitate,"  cried  she;  '*you 
fear  that  I  will  say  something  indiscreet,  —  something  that 
would  compromise  you  with  Miss  Herbert,  —  but  you  need 
not  dread  that;  and,  at  all  events,  you  shall  read  my 
letter." 

*'Far  from  it,"  said  I;  "my  hesitation  had  a  very  different 
source.  I  was  solely  thinking  whether,  if  you  were  aware 
of  how  I  stood  in  my  relations  to  Miss  Herbert,  you  would 
have  selected  me  as  your  advocate ;  and  though  it  may  pain 
me  to  make  a  full  confession,  you  shall  hear  everything." 

With  this  I  told  her  all,  —  all,  from  my  first  hour  of 
meeting  her  at  the  railway  station,  to  my  last  parting  with 
her  at  Schaffhausen.  I  tried  to  make  my  narrative  as  grave 
and  commonplace  as  might  be,  but,  do  what  I  would,  the 
figure  in  which  I  was  forced  to  present  myself,  overcame 
all  her  attempts  at  seriousness,  and  she  laughed  immoder- 
ately.    If  it  had  not  been  for  this  burst  of  merriment  on 


304  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

her  part,  it  is  more  than  probable  I  might  have  brought 
down  my  history  to  the  very  moment  of  telling,  and  narrated 
every  detail  of  my  journey  with  Vaterchen  and  Tintefleck. 
I  was,  however,  warned  by  these  circumstances,  and  con- 
cluded in  time  to  save  myself  from  this  new  ridicule. 

"From  all  that  you  have  told  me  here,"  said  she,  "I  only 
see  one  thing,  —  which  is,  that  you  are  deeply  in  love  with 
this  young  lady." 

"No,"  said  I;  "I  was  so  once,  I  am  not  so  any  longer. 
My  passion  has  fallen  into  the  chronic  stage,  and  I  feel 
myself  her  friend,  — only  her  friend." 

"Well,  for  the  purpose  I  have  in  mind,  this  is  all  the 
better.  I  want  you,  as  I  said,  to  place  my  letter  in  her 
hands,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  enforce  its  arguments,  — 
that  is,  try  and  persuade  her  that  to  reject  our  offers  on  her 
behalf  is  to  throw  upon  us  a  share  of  the  great  wrong  our 
uncle  worked,  and  make  us,  as  it  were,  participators  in 
the  evil  he  did  them.  As  for  myself,"  said  she,  boldly,  "all 
the  happiness  that  I  might  have  derived  from  ample  means 
is  dashed  with  remembering  what  misery  it  has  been 
attended  with  to  that  poor  family.  If  you  urge  that  one 
theme  forcibly,  you  can  scarcely  fail  with  her." 

"And  what  are  your  intentions  with  regard  to  her?  " 
asked  I. 

"They  will  take  any  shape  she  pleases.  My  brother 
would  either  enable  her  to  return  home,  and,  by  persuading 
her  mother  to  accept  an  annuity,  live  happily  under  her 
own  roof;  or  she  might,  if  the  spirit  of  independence  fires 
her,  —  she  might  yet  use  her  influence  over  her  mother  and 
sister  to  regard  our  proposals  more  favorably ;  or  she  might 
come  and  live  with  us,  and  this  I  would  prefer  to  all;  but 
you  must  read  my  letter,  and  more  than  once  too.  You 
must  possess  yourself  of  all  its  details,  and,  if  there  be 
anything  to  which  you  object,  there  will  be  time  enough 
still  to  change  it." 

"Here  he  is, — here  is  the  portrait  of  our  lost  sheep," 
said  Crofton,  now  entering  with  a  miniature  in  his  hand.  It 
represented  a  bluff,  bold,  almost  insolently  bold  man  in  full 
civic  robes,  the  face  not  improbably  catching  an  additional 
^expression  of  vulgar  pride  from  the  fact  that  the  likeness 


MARY  CROFTON'S  COMMISSION.  305 

was  taken  in  that  culminating  hour  of  greatness  when  he 
first  took  the  chair  as  chief  magistrate  of  his  town. 

"Not  an  over-pleasant  sort  of  fellow  to  deal  with,  I 
should  say,"  remarked  Crofton.  *' There  are  some  stern 
lines  here  about  the  corners  of  the  eyes,  and  certain  very 
suspicious-looking  indentations  next  the  mouth." 

"His  eye  has  no  forgiveness  in  it,"  said  his  sister. 

"Well,  one  thing  is  clear  enough,  he  ought  to  be  easily 
recognized;  that  broad  forehead,  and  those  wide-spread 
nostrils  and  deeply  divided  chin,  are  very  striking  marks 
to  guide  one.  I  cannot  give  you  this,"  said  Crofton  to 
me,  "  but  I  '11  take  care  to  send  you  an  accurate  copy  of  it 
at  the  first  favorable  moment;  meanwhile,  make  yourself 
master  of  its  details,  and  try  if  you  cannot  carry  the  resem- 
blance in  your  memory." 

"Disabuse  yourself,  too,"  said  she,  laughing,  "of  all  this 
accessorial  grandeur,  and  bear  in  mind  that  you  '11  not  find 
him  dressed  in  ermine,  or  surrounded  with  a  collar  and 
badge.  Not  very  like  his  daughter,  I  'm  sure,"  whispered 
she  in  my  ear,  as  I  continued  to  gaze  steadfastly  at  the 
portrait.     "  Can  you  trace  any  likeness  ?  " 

"Not  the  very  faintest;  she  is  beautiful,"  said  I,  "and 
her  whole  expression  is  gentleness  and  delicacy." 

"Well,  certainly,"  said  Crofton,  shutting  up  the  minia- 
ture, "these  are  not  the  distinguishing  traits  of  our  friend 
here,  whom  I  should  call  a  hard-natured,  stern,  obstinate 
fellow,  with  great  self-reliance,  and  no  great  trust  of 
others. " 

"I  was  just  thinking,"  said  I,  "that  were  I  to  come  up 
with  such  a  man  as  this,  what  chance  would  my  poor,  frail, 
yielding  temperament  have,  in  influencing  the  rugged  granite 
of  his  nature?     He  'd  terrify  me  at  once." 

"Not  when  your  object  was  a  good  and  generous  one," 
said  Miss  Crofton.  "You  might  well  enough  be  afraid  to 
confront  such  a  man  as  this  if  your  aim  was  to  overreach 
and  deceive  him;  but  bear  in  mind  the  fable  of  the  man 
who  had  the  courage  to  take  the  thorn  out  of  the  lion's 
paw.  The  operation,  we  are  told,  was  a  painful  one,  and 
there  might  have  been  an  instant  in  which  the  patient  felt 
disposed  to  eat  his  doctor;  but,  with  all  these  perils,  strong 

20 


306  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

in  a  good  purpose,  the  surgeon  persevered,  and  by  his  skill 
and  his  courage  made  the  king  of  the  beasts  his  fast  friend 
for  life.     The  lesson  is  worth  remembering." 

I  was  still  pondering  over  this  apophthegm,  when  Crofton 
aroused  me  by  pushing  across  the  table  a  great  heap  of 
gold.  "This  is  all  yours,  Potts,"  said  he;  "and  remember 
that  as  you  are  now  my  agent,  travelling  for  the  house  of 
Crofton  and  Co.,  that  you  journey  at  my  cost." 

Of  course  I  would  not  listen  to  this  proposal,  and,  although 
urged  by  Miss  Crofton  with  all  a  woman's  tact  and  deli- 
cacy, I  persisted  so  firmly  in  my  refusal,  that  they  were 
obliged  to  yield.  I  now  had  a  hundred  pounds  all  my  own; 
and  though  the  sum  be  not  a  very  splendid  one,  I  remember 
some  French  writer  —  I  'm  not  sure  it  is  not  Jules  Janin  — 
saying,  ''Any  man  who  can  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket 
and  find  five  Napoleons  there,  is  rich;"  and  he  certainly 
supports  his  theory  with  considerable  sophistry  and  clever- 
ness, mainly  depending  on  the  assumption  that  any  of  the 
reasonable  daily  necessities  of  life,  even  in  a  luxurious  point 
of  view,  are  attainable  with  such  means.  Now,  although  a 
hundred  pounds  would  not  very  long  supply  resources  for 
such  a  life,  yet,  as  I  am  not  a  Frenchman,  nor  living  in 
Paris,  still  less  had  I  habits  or  tastes  of  a  costly  kind,  I 
might  very  well  eke  out  three  months  pleasantly  on  this 
sum,  and  in  these  three  months  what  might  not  happen? 
In  a  "hundred  days  "  the  great  Napoleon  crushed  the  whole 
might  of  the  Austrian  empire,  and  secured  an  emperor's 
daughter  for  his  bride;  and  in  another  "hundred  days"  he 
made  the  tour  of  France,  from  Cannes  to  Rochefort,  and  lost 
an  empire  by  the  way!  Wonderful  things  might  then  be 
compassed  within  three  months. 

"What  are  you  saying  about  three  months.  Potts?" 
asked  Crofton,  for  unwittingly  I  had  uttered  these  words 
aloud. 

"I  was  observing,"  said  I,  "that  m  three  months  from 
this  day,  we  should  arrange  to  meet  somewhere.  Where 
shall  we  say  ?  " 

''Geneva  is  very  central;  shall  we  name  Geneva?" 

"Oh,  on  no  account.  Let  our  rendezvous  be  in  Italy 
Let  us  say  Rome." 


MARY  CROFTON'S  COMMISSION.  307 

"Rome  be  it,  then,"  cried  Crofton.  "Now  for  another 
point:  let  us  have  a  wager  as  to  who  first  discovers  the 
object  of  our  search.  I  '11  bet  you  twenty  Napoleons,  Potts, 
to  ten,  —  for  as  we  are  two  to  one,  so  should  the  wager  be. " 

"I  take  you,'*  cried  I,  entering  into  his  humor,  ''and  I 
feel  as  certain  of  success  as  if  I  had  your  money  in  my 
hands." 

' '  Will  you  have  another  wager  with  me  ?  "  whispered  Mary 
Crofton,  as  she  came  behind  my  chair.  "It  is,  that  you  '11 
not  persuade  Miss  Herbert  to  wear  this  ring  for  my  sake." 

"I  '11  bet  my  life  on  it,"  said  I,  taking  the  opal  ring  she 
drew  from  her  finger,  as  she  spoke;  "I'm  in  that  mood  of 
confidence  now,  I  feel  there  is  nothing  I  could  not  promise." 

"If  so,  then,  Potts,  let  me  have  the  benefit  of  this  fortu- 
nate interval,  and  ask  you  to  promise  me  one  thing,  which 
is,  not  to  change  your  mind  more  than  twice  a  day;  don't 
be  angry  with  me,  but  hear  me  out.  You  are  a  good- 
hearted  fellow,  and  have  excellent  intentions;  I  don't  think 
I  know  one  less  really  selfish,  but,  at  the  same  time,  you 
are  so  fickle  of  purpose,  so  undecided  in  action,  that  I  *d 
not  be  the  least  astonished  to  hear,  when  we  asked  for  you 
to-morrow  at  breakfast  time,  that  you  had  started  for  a  tour 
in  Norway,  or  on  a  voyage  to  the  Southern  Pacific." 

"And  is  this  your  judgment  of  me  also,  Miss  Crofton?  " 
said  I,  rising  from  my  seat. 

"Oh,  no,  Mr.  Potts.  I  would  only  suspect  you  of  going 
off  into  the  Tyrol,  or  the  Styrian  Alps,  and  forgetting  all 
about  us,  amidst  the  glaciers  and  the  cataracts. " 

"I  wish  yoa  a  good-night,  and  a  better  opinion  of  your 
humble  servant,"  said  I,  bowing. 

"Don't  go.  Potts  —  wait  a  minute  —  come  back.  I  have 
something  to  tell  you." 

I  closed  the  door  behind  me,  and  hastened  off,  not,  how- 
ever, perfectly  clear  whether  I  was  the  injured  man,  or  one 
who  had  just  achieved  a  great  outrage. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

FURTHER    INTERCOURSE   WITH    HARPAR. 

I  AM  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  I  was  vainglorious  enough 
to  accept  a  seat  in  the  Crofton  carriage  on  the  morning  of 
their  departure,  and  accompany  them  for  a  mile  or  so  of  the 
way,  —  even  at  the  price  of  returning  on  foot,  —  just  that  I 
might  show  myself  to  the  landlady  and  that  odious  old 
waiter  in  a  position  of  eminence,  and  make  them  do  a  bitter 
penance  for  the  insults  they  had  heaped  on  an  illustrious 
stranger.  It  was  a  poor  and  paltry  triumph,  and  over  very 
contemptible  adversaries,  but  I  could  not  refuse  it  to  myself. 
Crofton,  too,  contributed  largely  to  the  success  of  my  little 
scheme,  by  insisting  that  I  should  take  the  place  beside  his 
sister,  while  he  sat  with  his  back  to  the  horses  ;  and  though 
I  refused  at  first,  I  acceded  at  last,  with  the  bland  compli- 
ance of  a  man  who  feels  himself  once  more  in  his  accus- 
tomed station. 

As  throughout  this  true  history  I  have  candidly  revealed 
the  inmost  traits  of  my  nature  —  well  knowing  the  while 
how  deteriorating  such  innate  anatomy  must  prove  —  I  have 
ever  felt  that  he  who  has  small  claims  to  interest  by  the 
events  of  his  life,  can  make  some  compensation  to  the  world 
by  an  honest  exposure  of  his  motives,  his  weaknesses,  and 
his  struggles.  Now,  my  present  confession  is  made  in  this 
spirit,  and  is  not  absolutely  without  its  moral,  for,  as  the 
adage  tells  us,  ''Look  after  the  pence,  and  the  pounds  will 
take  care  of  themselves ;  "  so  would  I  say.  Guard  yourself 
carefully  against  petty  vices.  You  and  I,  most  esteemod 
reader,  are  —  I  trust  fervently  —  little  likely  to  be  arraigned 
on  a  capital  charge.  I  hope  sincerely  that  transportable 
felonies,  and  even  misdemeanors,  may  not  picture  among 
the  accidents  of  our  life ;  such-like  are  the  pounds  that  take 


FURTHER  INTERCOURSE  WITH  HARPAR.  809 

care  of  themselves,  but  the  "small  pence,"  which  require 
looking  after,  are  little  envies  and  jealousies  and  rancors, 
petty  snobberies  of  display,  small  exhibitions  of  our  being 
better  than  this  man  or  greater  than  that ;  these,  I  repeat  to 
you,  accumulate  on  a  man's  nature  just  the  way  barnacles 
fasten  on  a  ship's  bottom,  —  from  mere  time,  and  it  is  won- 
derful what  damage  can  come  of  such  paltry  obstacles. 

I  very  much  doubt  if  a  Roman  conqueror  regarded  the 
chained  captive  who  followed  his  chariot  with  a  more 
supreme  pride  than  I  bestowed  upon  that  miserable  old 
waiter  who  now  bowed  himself  to  the  ground  before  me,  and 
when  I  ordered  my  dinner  for  four  o'clock,  and  said  that 
probably  I  might  have  a  friend  to  dine  with  me,  his  humilia- 
tion was  complete. 

"  I  wish  I  knew  the  secret  of  your  staying  here,"  said 
Mary  Crofton,  as  we  drove  along;  "  why  will  you  not  tell 
it?" 

"Perhaps  it  might  prove  indiscreet,  Mary;  our  friend 
Potts  may  have  become  a  mauvais  sujet  since  we  have  seen 
him  last?" 

I  wrapped  myself  in  a  mysterious  silence,  and  only 
smiled. 

"  Lindau,  of  all  places,  to  stop  at!"  resumed  she,  pet- 
tishly. "  There  is  nothing  remarkable  in  the  scenery,  no 
art  treasures,  nothing  socially  agreeable;  what  can  it  pos- 
sibly be  that  detains  you  in  such  a  place  ?  " 

"  My  dear  Mary,"  said  Crofton,  "  you  are,  without  know- 
ing it,  violating  a  hallowed  principle ;  you  are  no  less  than 
leading  into  temptation.  Look  at  poor  Potts  there,  and  you 
will  see  that,  while  he  knows  in  his  inmost  heart  the  secret 
which  detains  him  here  is  some  passing  and  insignificant  cir- 
cumstance unworthy  of  mention,  you  have,  by  imparting  to 
it  a  certain  importance,  suggested  to  his  mind  the  necessity 
of  a  story ;  give  him  now  but  five  minutes  to  collect  himself, 
and  I  '11  engage  that  he  will  '  come  out '  with  a  romantic 
incident  that  would  never  have  seen  the  light  but  for  a 
woman's  curiosity." 

"  Good  heavens !  "  thought  I,  "  can  this  be  a  true  inter- 
pretation of  my  character?  Am  I  the  weak  and  impres- 
sionable creature  this  would   bespeak  me  ?  "     I  must  have 


310  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

blushed  deeply  at  my  own  reflection,  for  Crofton  quickly 
added, — 

"  Don't  get  angry  with  me.  Potts,  any  more  than  you  would 
with  a  friend  who  'd  say, '  Take  care  how  you  pass  over  that 
bridge,  I  know  it  is  rotten  and  must  give  way.' " 

*'Let  me  answer  you,"  said  I,  courageously,  for  I  was 
acutely  hurt  to  be  thus  arraigned  before  another.  "It  is 
more  than  likely  that  you,  with  your  active  habits  and 
stirring  notions  of  life,  would  lean  very  heavily  on  him 
who,  neither  wanting  riches  nor  honors,  would  adopt  some 
simple  sort  of  dreamy  existence,  and  think  that  the  green 
alleys  of  the  beech  wood,  or  the  little  path  beside  the 
river,  pleasanter  sauntering  than  the  gilded  antechamber 
of  a  palace ;  and  just  as  likely  is  it  that  you  would  take 
him  roundly  to  task  about  wasted  opportunities,  misapplied 
talents,  and  stigmatize  as  inglorious  indolence  what  might 
as  possibly  be  called  a  contented  humility.  Now,  I  would 
ask  you,  why  should  one  man  be  the  measure  of  another? 
The  load  you  could  carry  with  ease  might  serve  to  crush 
me,  and  yet  there  may  be  some  light  burdens  that  would 
suit  my  strength,  and  in  bearing  which  I  might  taste  a 
sense  of  duty  grateful  as  your  own." 

"I  have  no  patience  with  you,"  began  Crofton,  warmly; 
but  his  sister  stopped  him  with  an  imploring  look,  and  then, 
turning  to  me,  said,  — 

"  Edward  fancies  that  every  one  can  be  as  energetic  and 
active  as  himself,  and  occasionally  forgets  what  you  have 
just  so  well  remarked  as  to  the  relative  capacities  of  differ- 
ent people." 

"  I  want  him  to  do  something,  to  be  something  besides  a 
dreamer !  "  burst  he  in,  almost  angrily. 

"Well,  then,"  said  I,  "you  shall  see  me  begin  this  mo- 
ment, tor  I  will  get  down  here  and  walk  briskly  back  to 
the  town."  I  called  to  the  postilions  to  pull  up  at  the 
same  time,  and  in  spite  of  remonstrances,  entreaties,  — 
almost  beseeching  from  Mary  Crofton,  —  I  persisted  in  my 
resolve,  and  bade  them  farewell. 

Crofton  was  so  much  hurt  that  he  could  scarcely  speak, 
and  when  he  gave  me  his  hand  it  was  in  the  coldest  of 
manners. 


FURTHER  INTERCOURSE  WITH  HARPAR.  811 

'*  But  you  '11  keep  our  rendezvous,  won't  you !  "  said  Mary ; 
*'  we  shall  meet  at  Rome." 

"  I  really  wonder,  Mary,  how  you  can  force  our  acquaint- 
anceship where  it  is  so  palpably  declined.  Good-bye,  — 
farewell,"  said  he  to  me. 

''  Good-bye,"  said  I,  with  a  gulp  that  almost  choked  me; 
and  away  drove  the  carriage,  leaving  me  standing  in  the 
train  of  dust  it  had  raised.  Every  crack  of  the  postboys' 
whips  gave  me  a  shock  as  though  I  had  felt  the  thong  on  my 
own  shoulders  ;  and,  at  last,  as  sweeping  round  a  turn  of  the 
road  the  carriage  disappeared  from  view,  such  was  the  sense 
of  utter  desolation  that  came  over  me,  that  I  sat  down  on  a 
stone  by  the  wayside,  overwhelmed.  I  do  not  know  if  I  ever 
felt  such  an  utter  sense  of  destitution  as  at  that  moment. 
*' What  a  wealth  of  friends  must  a  man  possess,"  thought  I, 
*'  who  can  afford  to  squander  them  in  this  fashion  !  How 
could  I  have  repelled  the  counsels  that  kindness  alone  could 
have  prompted  ?  Surely  Crof ton  must  know  far  more  of  life 
than  I  did?"  From  this  I  went  on  to  inquire  why  it  was 
that  the  world  showed  itself  so  unforgiving  to  idleness  in 
men  of  small  fortune,  since,  if  no  burden  to  the  community, 
they  ought  to  be  as  free  as  their  richer  brethren.  It  was  a 
puzzling  theme,  and  though  I  revolved  it  long,  I  made  but 
little  of  it ;  the  only  solution  that  occurred  to  me  was,  that 
the  idleness  of  the  humble  man  is  not  relieved  by  the  splen- 
dors and  luxuries  which  surround  a  rich  man's  leisure,  and 
that  the  world  resents  the  pretensions  of  ease  unassociated 
with  riches.  In  what  a  profound  philosophy  was  it,  then, 
that  Diogenes  rolled  his  tub  about  the  streets !  There  was 
a  mock  purpose  about  it,  that  must  have  flattered  his 
fellow-citizens.  I  feel  assured  that  a  great  deal  of  the 
butterfly-hunting  and  beetle-gathering  that  we  see  around 
us  is  done  in  this  spirit.  They  are  a  set  of  idle  folk 
anxious  to  indulge  their  indolence  without  reproach. 

Thus  pondering  and  musing,  I  strolled  back  to  the  town. 
So  still  and  silent  was  it,  so  free  from  all  movement  of  traf- 
fic or  business,  that  I  was  actually  in  the  very  centre  of  it 
without  knowing  it.  There  were  streets  without  passengers, 
and  shops  without  customers,  and  even  cafes  without  guests, 
and  I  wondered  within  myself  why  people  should  thus  con- 


312  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

gregate  to  do  nothing,  and  I  rambled  on  from  street  to  alley y, 
and  from  alley  to  lane,  never  chancing  upon  one  who  had 
anything  in  hand.  At  last  I  gained  the  side  of  the  lake, 
along  which  a  little  quay  ran  for  some  distance,  ending  in  a 
sort  of  terraced  walk,  now  grass-grown  and  neglected. 
There  were  at  least  the  charms  of  fresh  air  and  scenery 
here,  though  the  worthy  citizen  seemed  to  hold  them  cheaply, 
and  I  rambled  along  to  the  end,  where,  by  a  broad  flight  of 
steps,  the  terrace  communicated  with  the  lake;  a  spot> 
doubtless,  where,  once  on  a  time,  the  burghers  took  the 
water  and  went  out  a-pleasuring  with  fat  fraus  and  frauleins. 
I  had  reached  the  end,  and  was  about  to  turn  back  again, 
when  I  caught  sight  of  a  man,  seated  on  one  of  the  lower 
steps,  employed  in  watching  two  little  toy  ships  which  he 
had  just  launched.  Now,  this  seemed  to  me  the  very  climax 
of  indolence,  and  I  sat  myself  down  on  the  parapet  to  ob- 
serve him.  His  proceedings  were  indeed  of  the  strangest, 
for  as  there  was  no  wind  to  fill  the  sails  and  his  vessels  lay 
still  and  becalmed,  he  appeared  to  have  bethought  him  of 
another  mode  to  impart  interest  to  him.  He  weighted  one  of 
them  with  little  stones  till  he  brought  her  gunwale  level  with 
the  water,  and  then  pressing  her  gently  with  his  hand,  he 
made  her  sink  slowly  down  to  the  bottom.  I'm  not  quite 
certain  whether  I  laughed  outright,  or  that  some  exclamation 
escaped  me  as  I  looked,  but  some  noise  I  must  unquestion- 
ably have  made,  for  he  started  and  turned  up  his  head,  and 
I  saw  Harpar  the  Englishman  whom  I  had  met  the  day 
before  at  Constance. 

"Well,  you're  not  much  the  wiser  after  all,"  said  he, 
gruffly,  and  without  even  saluting  me. 

There  was  in  the  words,  and  fierce  expression  of  his  face, 
something  that  made  me  suspect  him  of  insanity,  and  I 
would  willingly  have  retired  without  reply  had  he  not  risen 
and  approached  me. 

"Eh,"  repeated  he,  with  a  sneer,  "ain't  I  right?  You 
can  make  nothing  of  it?" 

"  I  really  don't  understand  you !  "  said  I.  "I  came  down 
here  by  the  merest  accident,  and  never  was  more  astonished 
than  to  see  you." 

"  Oh,  of  course;  I  am  well  used  to  that  sort  of  thing," 


FUKTHER  INTERCOURSE   WITH  HARPAR.  313 

went  he  on  in  the  same  tone  of  scoff.  ''  I  've  had  some  ex- 
perience of  these  kinds  of  accidents  before ;  but,  as  I  said, 
it 's  no  use,  you  're  not  within  one  thousand  miles  of  it,  no, 
nor  any  man  in  Europe." 

It  was  quite  clear  to  me  now  that  he  was  mad,  and  my 
only  care  was  to  get  speedily  rid  of  him. 

"  I  'm  not  surprised,"  said  I,  with  an  assumed  ease,  — 
"I'm  not  surprised  at  your  having  taken  to  so  simple  an 
amusement,  for  really  in  a  place  so  dull  as  this  any  mode  of 
passing  the  time  would  be  welcome." 

**  Simple  enough  when  you  know  it,"  said  he,  with  a 
peculiar  look. 

"  You  arrived  last  night,  I  suppose?  "  said  I,  eager  to  get 
conversation  into  some  pleasanter  channel. 

"  Yes,  I  got  here  very  late.  I  had  the  misfortune  to 
sprain  my  ankle,  and  this  detained  me  a  long  time  on  the 
way,  and  may  keep  me  for  a  couple  of  days  more." 

I  learned  where  he  was  stopping  in  the  town,  and  seeing 
with  what  pain  and  difficulty  he  moved,  I  offered  him  my 
aid  to  assist  him  on  his  way. 

"Well,  I'll  not  refuse  your  help,"  said  he,  dryly;  "but 
just  go  along  yonder,  about  five-and-twenty  or  thirty  yards, 
and  I'll  join  you.     You  understand  me,  I  suppose?  " 

Now,  I  really  did  not  understand  him,  except  to  believe 
him  perfectly  insane,  and  suggest  to  me  the  notion  of  profit- 
ing by  his  lameness  to  make  my  escape  with  all  speed.  I 
conclude  some  generous  promptings  opposed  this  course,  for 
I  obeyed  his  injunctions  to  the  very  letter,  and  waited  till  he 
came  up  to  me.  He  did  so  very  slowly,  and  evidently  in 
much  suffering,  assisted  by  a  stick  in  one  hand,  while  he 
carried  his  two  little  boats  in  the  other. 

"  Shall  I  take  charge  of  these  for  you?"  said  I,  offering 
to  carry  them. 

"  No,  don't  trouble  yourself,"  said  he  in  the  same  rude 
tone.     "  Nobody  touches  these  but  myself." 

I  now  gave  him  my  arm,  and  we  moved  slowly  along. 

"What  has  become  of  the  vagabonds?  Are  they  here 
with  you  ?  "  asked  he,  abruptly. 

"I  parted  with  them  yesterday,"  said  I,  shortly,  and  not 
wishing  to  enter  into  further  explanations. 


^14  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"  And  you  did  wisely,"  rejoined  he,  with  a  serious  air. 
^'  Even  when  these  sort  of  creatures  have  nothing  very 
bad  about  them,  they  are  bad  company,  out  of  the  hap- 
hazard chance  way  they  gain  a  livelihood.  If  you  reduce 
life  to  a  game,  you  must  yourself  become  a  gambler.  Now, 
there  *s  one  feature  of  that  sort  of  existence  intolerable  to  an 
honest  man ;  it  is,  that  to  win  himself,  some  one  else  must 
lose.     Do  you  understand  me?" 

*'  I  do,  and  am  much  struck  by  what  you  say." 

"  In  that  case,"  said  he,  with  a  nudge  of  his  elbow 
against  my  side,  —  ''in  that  case  you  might  as  well  have  not 
come  down  to  watch  me  ?  —  eh?  " 

I  protested  stoutly  against  this  mistake,  but  I  could 
plainly  perceive  with  very  little  success. 

"  Let  it  be,  let  it  be,"  said  he,  with  a  shake  of  the 
head.  "  As  I  said  before,  if  you  saw  the  thing  done  before 
your  eyes  you  'd  make  nothing  of  it.  I  'm  not  afraid  of  you, 
or  all  the  men  in  Europe !  There  now,  there  's  a  challenge 
to  the  whole  of  ye !  Sit  down  every  man  of  ye,  with  the 
problem  before  ye,  and  see  what  you  '11  make  of  it." 

"Ah,"  thought  I,  "this  is  madness.  Here  is  a  poor 
monomaniac  led  away  into  the  land  of  wild  thoughts  and 
fancies  by  one  dominating  caprice ;  who  knows  whether 
out  of  the  realm  of  this  delusion  he  may  not  be  a  man 
acute  and  sensible." 

"No,  no,"  muttered  he,  half  aloud;  "there  are,  maybe, 
half  a  million  of  men  this  moment  manufacturing  steam- 
engines;  but  it  took  one  head,  just  one  head,  to  set  them 
all  working,  and  if  it  was  n't  for  old  Watt,  the  world  at  this 
day  would  n't  be  five  miles  in  advance  of  what  it  was  a 
century  back.  I  see,"  added  he,  after  a  moment,  "3^ou 
don't  take  much  interest  in  these  sort  of  things.  Your  line 
of  parts  is  the  walking  gentleman,  eh?  Well,  bear  in 
mind  it  don't  pay ;  no,  sir,  it  don't  pay !  Here,  this  is  my 
way;  my  lodging  is  down  this  lane.  I'll  not  ask  you  to 
come  further ;  thank  you  for  your  help,  and  good-bye." 

"  Let  us  not  part  here ;  come  up  to  the  inn  and  dine  with 
me,"  said  I,  affecting  his  own  blunt  and  abrupt  manner. 

"  Why  should  /  dine  with  you  ?  "  asked  he,  roughly. 

"  I  can't  exactly   say,"  stammered  I,   "  except  out  of 


FURTHER  INTERCOURSE   WITH  HARPAR.  315 

good-fellowship,    just    as,    for    instance,    I    accepted    your 
invitation  t'  other  morning  to  breakfast." 

"Ah,  yes,  to  be  sure,  so  you  did.  Well,  I'll  come.  We 
shall  be  all  alone,  I  suppose?" 

''  Quite  alone." 

"All  right,  for  I  have  no  coat  but  this  one;"  and  he 
looked  down  at  the  coarse  sleeve  as  he  spoke,  with  a 
strange  and  sad  smile,  and  then  waving  his  hand  in  token 
of  farewell,  he  said,  "  I  '11  join  you  in  half  an  hour,"  and 
disappeared  up  the  lane. 

I  have  already  owned  that  I  did  not  like  this  man;  he 
had  a  certain  short  abrupt  way  that  repelled  me  at  every 
moment.  When  he  differed  in  opinion  with  me,  he  was  not 
satisfied  to  record  his  dissent,  but  he  must  set  about  demol- 
ishing my  conviction,  and  this  sort  of  intolerance  pervaded 
all  he  said.  There  was,  too,  that  business-like  practical 
tone  about  him  that  jars  fearfully  on  the  sensitive  fibre  of 
the  idler's  nature. 

It  was  exactly  in  proportion  as  his  society  was  distasteful 
to  me,  that  I  felt  a  species  of  pride  in  associating  with  him, 
as  though  to  say,  "  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  must  be 
fawned  on  and  flattered.  I  am  of  a  healthier  and  manlier 
stamp ;  I  can  afford  to  hear  my  judgments  arraigned,  and  my 
opinions  opposed."  And  in  this  humor  I  ascended  the  stairs 
of  the  hotel,  and  entered  the  room  where  our  table  was 
already  laid  out. 

To  compensate,  as  far  as  they  could,  for  the  rude  recep- 
tion of  the  day  before,  they  had  given  me  now  the  "  grand 
apartment"  of  the  inn,  which,  by  a  long  balcony,  looked 
over  the  lake,  and  that  fine  mountain  range  that  leads  to  the 
Spliigen  pass.  A  beautiful  bouquet  of  fresh  flowers  or- 
namented the  centre  of  the  small  dinner-table,  tastily  decked 
with  Bohemian  glass,  and  napkins  with  lace  borders.  I 
rather  liked  this  little  display  of  elegance.  It  was  a  sort  of 
ally  on  my  side  against  the  utilitarian  plainness  of  my  guest. 

As  I  walked  up  and  down  the  room,  awaiting  his  arrival, 
I  could  not  help  a  sigh,  and  a  very  deep  one  too,  over  the 
thought  of  what  had  been  my  enjoyment  that  moment  if  my 
guest  had  been  one  of  a  different  temperament,  —  a  man 
•willing  to  take  me  on  my  own  showing,  and  ready  to  accept 


316  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

any  version  I  should  like  to  give  of  myself.  How  grace- 
fully, how  charmingly  I  could  have  played  the  host  to  such 
a  man !  What  vigor  would  it  have  imparted  to  my  imagina- 
tion, what  brilliancy  to  my  fancy !  With  what  a  princely 
grace  might  I  have  dispensed  my  hospitalities,  as  though 
such  occasions  were  the  daily  habit  of  my  life ;  whereas  a 
dinner  with  Harpar  would  be  nothing  more  or  less  than  an 
airing  with  a  *'  Slave  in  the  chariot,"  —  a  perpetual  reminder, 
like  the  face  of  a  poor  relation,  that  my  lot  was  cast  in  an 
humble  sphere,  and  it  was  no  use  trying  to  disguise  it. 

"  What's  all  this  for?"  said  Harpar's  harsh  voice,  as  he 
entered  the  room.  "  Why  did  n't  you  order  our  mutton-chop 
below  stairs  in  the  common  room,  and  not  a  banquet  in  this 
fashion  ?  You  must  be  well  aware  I  could  n't  do  this  sort  of 
thing  by  you.    Why,  then,  have  you  attempted  it  with  me  ?  ** 

''  I  have  always  thought  it  was  a  host's  prerogative,"  said 
I,  meekly,  "to  be  the  arbiter  of  his  own  entertainment." 

"  So  it  might  where  he  is  the  arbiter  of  his  purse;  but  you 
know  well  enough  neither  you  nor  I  have  any  pretension  to 
these  costly  ways,  and  they  have  this  disadvantage,  that  they 
make  all  intercourse  stilted  and  unnatural.  If  you  and  I 
had  to  sit  down  to  table,  dressed  in  court  suits,  with  wigs 
and  bags,  ain't  it  likely  we'd  be  easy  and  cordial  together? 
Well,  this  is  precisely  the  same." 

''  I  am  really  sorry,"  said  I,  with  a  forced  appearance  of 
courtesy,  "  to  have  incurred  so  severe  a  lesson,  but  you 
must  allow  me  this  one  trangression  before  I  begin  to  profit 
by  it."     And  so  saying,  I  rang  the  bell  and  ordered  dinner. 

Harpar  made  no  reply,  but  walked  the  room,  with  his 
hands  deep  in  his  pockets,  humming  a  tune  to  himself  as 
he  went. 

At  last  we  sat  down  to  table;  everything  was  excellent 
and  admirably  served,  but  we  ate  on  in  silence,  not  a  syllable 
exchanged  between  us.  As  the  dessert  appeared,  I  tried  to 
open  conversation.  I  affected  to  seem  easy  and  uncon- 
cerned, but  the  cold  half-stern  look  of  my  companion 
repelled  all  attempts,  and  I  sat  very  sad  and  much  discour- 
aged, sipping  my  wine. 

"  May  I  order  some  brandy-and-water?  I  like  it  better 
than  these  French  wines,"  asked   he,   abruptly;   and   as  I 


FURTHER  INTERCOURSE  WITH  HARPAR.  317 

arose  to  ring  for  it,  he  added,  "  au,d  you'll  not  object  to 
me  having  a  pipe  of  strong  Cavendish?"  And  therewith 
he  produced  a  leather  bag  and  a  very  much  smoked  meer- 
schaum, short  and  ungainly  as  his  own  figure.  As  he  thrust 
his  hand  into  the  pouch,  a  small  boat,  about  the  size  of  a 
lady's  thimble,  rolled  out  from  amidst  the  tobacco  ;  he  quickly 
took  it  and  placed  it  in  his  waistcoat  pocket,  —  the  act  being 
done  with  a  sort  of  hurry  that  with  a  man  of  less  self- 
possession  might  have  perhaps  evinced  confusion. 

"  You  fancy  you  've  seen  something,  don't  you?  "  said  he, 
with  a  defiant  laugh.  "I'd  wager  a  five-pound  note,  if  I 
had  one,  that  you  think  at  this  moment  you  have  made  a 
great  discovery.     Well,  there  it  is,  make  much  of  it !  " 

As  he  spoke,  he  produced  the  little  boat,  and  laid  it  down 
before  me.  I  own  that  this  speech  and  the  act  convinced 
me  that  he  was  insane ;  I  was  aware  that  intense  suspectful- 
ness  is  the  great  characteristic  of  madness,  and  everything 
tended  to  show  that  he  was  deranged. 

Rather  to  conceal  what  was  passing  in  my  own  mind  than 
out  of  curiositj^,  I  took  up  the  little  toy  to  examine  it.  It 
was  beautifully  made,  and  finished  with  a  most  perfect 
neatness ;  the  only  thing  I  could  not  understand  being  four 
small  holes  on  each  side  of  the  keel,  fastened  by  four  little 
plugs. 

"  What  are  these  for?  "  asked  I. 

"  Can't  you  guess?  "  said  he,  laughingly. 

''  No ;  I  have  never  seen  such  before." 

"  Well,"  said  he,  musingly,  "  perhaps  they  are  puzzling, 
—  I  suppose  they  are.  But  mayhap,  too,  if  I  thought  you  'd 
guess  the  meaning,  I  'd  not  have  been  so  ready  to  show  it  to 
you."  And  with  this  he  replaced  the  boat  in  his  pocket  and 
smoked  away.  "  You  ain't  a  genius,  my  worthy  friend, 
that 's  a  fact,"  said  he,  sententiously. 

''I  opine  that  the  same  judgment  might  be  passed  upon  a 
great  many?"  said  I,  testily. 

''No,"  continued  he,  following  on  his  own  thoughts  with- 
out heeding  my  remark,  ''''you  *ll  not  set  the  Thames  a-fire." 

"Is  that  the  best  test  of  a  man's  ability?"  asked  I, 
sneeringly. 

"You're  the  sort  of  fellow  that  ought  to  be  —  let  us  see 


318  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

now  what  you  ought  to  be, — yes,  you're  just  the  stamp  of 
man  for  an  apothecary." 

"You  are  so  charming  in  your  frankness,"  said  I,  "that 
you  almost  tempt  me  to  imitate  you." 

"And  why  not?  Sure  we  oughtn't  to  talk  to  each  other 
like  two  devils  in  waiting.  Out  with  what  you  have  to 
say!" 

"I  was  just  thinking,"  said  I,  —  "led  to  it  by  that  spec- 
ulative turn  of  yours,  —  I  was  just  thinking  in  what  station 
your  abilities  would  have  pre-eminently  distinguished 
you." 

"Well,  have  you  hit  it?" 

"I'm  not  quite  certain,"  said  I,  trying  to  screw  up  my 
courage  for  an  impertinence,  "  but  I  half  suspect  that  in  our 
great  national  works  —  our  lines  of  railroad,  for  instance  — 
there  must  be  a  strong  infusion  of  men  with  tastes  and 
habits  resembling  yours." 

"You  mean  the  navvies?"  broke  he  in.  "You're  right, 
I  was  a  navvy  once ;  I  turned  the  first  spadeful  of  earth  on 
the  Coppleston  Junction,  and,  seeing  what  a  good  thing 
might  be  made  of  it,  I  suggested  task-work  to  my  com- 
rades, and  we  netted  from  four-and-six  to  five  shillings  a 
day  each.  In  eight  months  after,  I  was  made  an  inspector; 
so  that  you  see  strong  sinews  can  be  good  allies  to  a  strong 
head  and  a  stout  will. " 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  most  angry  rebuke,  the  most 
sarcastic  rejoinder,  could  have  covered  me  with  a  tenth  part 
of  the  shame  and  confusion  that  did  these  few  words. 
I'd  have  given  worlds,  if  I  had  them,  to  make  ^  due 
reparation  for  my  rudeness,  but  I  knew  not  how  to  accom- 
plish it.  I  looked  into  his  face  to  read  if  I  might  hit  upon 
some  trait  by  which  his  nature  could  be  approached;  but 
I  might  as  well  have  gazed  ai  a  line  of  railroad  to  guess  the 
sort  of  town  that  it  led  to.  The  stern,  rugged,  bold  coun- 
tenance seemed  to  imply  little  else  than  daring  and  deter- 
mination, and  I  could  not  but  wonder  how  I  had  ever  dared 
to  take  a  liberty  with  one  of  his  stamp. 

"Well,"  said  I,  at  last,  and  wishing  to  lead  him  back  to 
his  story,  "and  after  being  made  inspector  —  " 

"You  can  speak  German  well,"  said  he,  totally  inattentive 


FURTHER  INTERCOURSE  WITH  HARPAR.  319 

to  my  question;  "just  ask  one  of  these  people  when  there 
will  be  any  conveyance  from  this  to  Ragatz." 

"Ragatz,  of  all  places!"  exclaimed  1. 

"Yes;  they  tell  me  it's  good  for  the  rheumatics,  and  I 
have  got  some  old  shoulder  pains  I  'd  like  to  shake  off  before 
winter.  And  then  this  sprain,  too ;  I  foresee  I  shall  not  be 
able  to  walk  much  for  some  days  to  come." 

"Ragatz  is  on  my  road;  I  am  about  to  cross  the  Splligen 
into  Italy ;  I  '11  bear  you  company  so  far,  if  you  have  no 
objection." 

"Well,  it  may  not  seem  civil  to  say  it,  but  I  have  an  ob- 
jection," said  he,  rising  from  the  table.  "When  I've  got 
weighty  things  on  my  mind,  I  've  a  bad  habit  of  talking  of 
them  to  myself  aloud.  I  can't  help  it,  and  so  I  keep 
strictly  alone  till  my  plans  are  all  fixed  and  settled ;  after 
that,  there  's  no  danger  of  my  revealing  them  to  any  one. 
There  now,  you  have  my  reason,  and  you  '11  not  dispute 
that  it 's  a  good  one." 

"You  may  not  be  too  distrustful  of  yourself,"  said  I, 
laughing,  "but,  assuredly,  you  are  far  too  flattering  in  your 
estimate  of  my  acuteness." 

"I'll  not  risk  it,"  said  he,  bluntly,  as  he  sought  for  his 
hat. 

"Wait  a  moment,"  said  I.  "You  told  me  at  Constance 
that  you  were  in  want  of  money;  at  the  time  I  was  not 
exactly  in  funds  myself.  Yesterday,  however,  I  received  a 
remittance;  and  if  ten  or  twenty  pounds  be  of  any  service, 
they  are  heartily  at  your  disposal." 

He  looked  at  me  fixedly,  almost  sternly,  for  a  minute  or 
two,  and  then  said,  — 

"Is  this  true,  or  is  it  that  you  have  changed  your  mind 
about  me?  " 

"True,"  said  I,  —"strictly  true." 

"Will  this  loan  —  I  mean  it  to  be  a  loan  —  inconvenience 
you  much?" 

"No,  no;  I  make  you  the  offer  freely." 

"I  take  it,  then.  Let  me  have  ten  pounds;  and  write 
down  there  an  address  where  I  am  to  remit  it  some  day  or 
other,  though  I  can't  say  when." 

"There  may  be  some  difficulty  about  that,"  said  I.    "  Stay. 


320  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  mean  to  be  at  Rome  some  time  in  the  winter;  send  it  to 
me  there." 

"To  what  banker?" 

"I  have  no  banker;  I  never  had  a  banker.  There's  my 
name,  and  let  the  post-office  be  the  address." 

"Whichever  way  you  're  bent  on  going,  you  're  not  on  the 
road  to  be  a  rich  man,"  said  Harpar,  as  he  deposited  my 
gold  in  his  leather  purse;  "but  I  hope  you'll  not  lose  by 
me.  Good-bye."  He  gave  me  his  hand,  not  very  warmly 
or  cordially,  either,  and  was  gone  ere  I  well  knew  it. 


CHAPTER   XXXVn. 

MY  EXPLOSION   AT   THE    TABLE    d'h6tE. 

I  WENT  the  next  morning  to  take  leave  of  Harpar  before 
starting,  but  found,  to  my  astonishment,  that  he  was 
already  off!  He  had,  I  learned,  hired  a  small  carriage  to 
convey  him  to  Bregenz,  and  had  set  out  before  daybreak. 
I  do  not  know  why  this  should  have  annoyed  me,  but  it 
did  so,  and  set  me  a-thinking  over  the  people  whom 
Echstein  in  his  "Erfahrungen,"  says,  are  born  to  be  dupes. 
*' There  is,"  says  he,  ''a  race  of  men  who  are  '  eingeborne 
Narren,'  —  '  native  numskulls,'  one  might  say,  —  who 
muddy  the  streams  of  true  benevolence  by  indiscriminating 
acts  of  kindness,  and  who,  by  always  aiding  the  wrong- 
doer, make  themselves  accomplices  of  vice."  Could  it  be 
that  I  was  in  this  barren  category?  Harpar  had  told  me, 
the  evening  before,  that  he  would  not  leave  Lindau  till  his 
sprain  was  better,  and  now  he  was  off,  just  as  if,  having  no 
further  occasion  for  me,  he  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  my  com- 
panionship —  just  as  if  —  I  was  beginning  again  to  start 
another  conjecture,  when  I  bethought  me  that  there  is  not  a 
more  deceptive  formula  in  the  whole  cyclopaedia  of  delusion 
than  that  which  opens  with  these  same  words,  "just  as  if." 
Rely  upon  it,  amiable  reader,  that  whenever  you  find  your- 
self driven  to  explain  a  motive,  trace  a  cause,  or  reconcile  a 
discrepancy,  by  "just  as  if,"  the  chances  are  about  seven 
to  three  you  are  wrong.  If  I  was  not  in  the  bustle  of 
paying  my  bill  and  strapping  on  my  knapsack,  I  'd  convince 
you  on  this  head;  but,  as  the  morning  is  a  bright  but 
mellow  one  of  early  autumn,  and  my  path  lies  along  the 
placid  lake,  waveless  and  still,  with  many  a  tinted  tree 
reflected  in  its  fair  mirror,  let  us  not  think  of  knaves  and 
rogues,  but  rather  dwell  on  the  pleasanter  thought  of  all  the 

21 


322  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

good  and  grateful  things  which  daily  befall  us  in  this  same 
life  of  ours.  I  am  full  certain  that  almost  all  of  us  enter 
upon  what  is  called  the  world  in  too  combative  a  spirit. 
We  are  too  fond  of  dragon  slaying,  and  rather  than  be  dis- 
appointed of  our  sport,  we'd  fall  foul  of  a  pet  lamb,  for 
want  of  a  tiger.  Call  it  self-delusion,  credulity,  what  you 
will,  it  is  a  faith  that  makes  life  very  livable,  and,  with- 
out it, 

"  We  feel  a  light  has  left  the  world, 
A  nameless  sort  of  treasure, 
As  though  one  pluek'd  the  crimson  heart 

From  out  the  rose  of  pleasure. 

I  could  forgive  the  fate  that  made 

Me  poor  and  young  to-morrow, 

To  have  again  the  soul  that  played 

So  tenderly  in  sorrow, 
So  buoyantly  in  happiness. 

Ay,  I  would  brook  deceiving, 
And  even  the  deceiver  bless, 
Just  to  go  on  believing  ! " 

"Still,"  thought  I,  "one  ought  to  maintain  self-respect; 
one  should  not  willingly  make  himself  a  dupe.  And  then  I 
began  to  wish  that  Vaterchen  had  come  up,  and  that  Tinte- 
fleck  was  rushing  towards  me  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  and  my 
money-bag  in  her  hands.  I  wanted  to  forget  them.  I  tried 
in  a  hundred  ways  to  prevent  them  crossing  my  memory; 
but  though  there  is  a  most  artful  system  of  artificial  "mne- 
monics "  invented  by  some  one,  the  Lethal  art  has  met  no 
explorer,  and  no  man  has  ever  yet  found  out  the  way  to 
shut  the  door  against  bygones.  I  believe  it  is  scarcely 
more  than  five  miles  to  Bregenz  from  Lindau,  and  yet  I  was 
almost  as  many  hours  on  the  road.  I  sat  down,  perhaps 
twenty  times,  lost  in  revery;  indeed,  I'm  not  very  sure 
that  I  did  n't  take  a  sound  sleep  under  a  spreading  willow, 
so  that,  when  I  reached  the  inn,  the  company  was  just 
going  in  to  dinner  at  the  table  d'hote.  Simple  and  unpre- 
tentious as  that  board  was,  the  company  that  graced  it  was 
certainly  distinguished,  being  no  less  than  the  Austrian 
field-marshal  in  command  of  the  district,  and  the  officers  of 
his  staff.  To  English  notions,  it  seemed  very  strange  to 
see  a  nobleman  of  the  highest  rank,  in  the  proudest  state  of 


MY  EXPLOSION  AT  THE  TABLE  D'HOTE.  323 

Eui'ope,  seated  at  a  dinner-table  open  to  all  comers,  at  a 
fraction  less  than  one  shilling  a  head,  and  where  some  of 
the  government  officials  of  the  place  daily  came. 

It  was  not  without  a  certain  sense  of  shame  that  I  found 
myself  in  the  long  low  chamber,  in  which  about  twenty 
officers  were  assembled,  whose  uniforms  were  all  glittering 
with  stars,  medals,  and  crosses ;  in  fact,  to  a  weak-minded 
civilian  like  myself,  they  gave  the  impression  of  a  group  of 
heroes  fresh  come  from  all  the  triumphant  glories  of  a  cam- 
paign. Between  the  staff,  which  occupied  one  end  of  the 
long  table,  and  the  few  townsfolk  who  sat  at  the  other, 
there  intervened  a  sort  of  frontier  territory  uninhabited ;  and 
it  was  here  that  the  waiter  located  me,  —  an  object  of  obser- 
vation and  remark  to  each.  Resolving  to  learn  how  I  was 
treated  by  my  critics,  I  addressed  the  waiter  in  the  very 
worst  French,  and  protested  my  utter  ignorance  of  Ger- 
man. I  had  promised  myself  much  amusement  from  this 
expedient,  but  was  doomed  to  a  severe  disappointment,  — 
the  officers  coolly  setting  me  down  for  a  servant,  while  the 
townspeople  pronounced  me  a  pedler;  and  when  these  judg- 
ments had  been  recorded,  instead  of  entering  upon  a  psycho- 
logical examination  of  my  nature,  temperament,  and  indi- 
viduality, they  never  noticed  me  any  more.  I  felt  hurt  at 
this,  more,  indeed,  for  their  sakes  than  my  own,  since  I 
bethought  me  of  the  false  impression  that  is  current  of  this 
people  throughout  Europe,  where  they  have  the  reputation 
of  philosophers  deeply  engaged  in  researches  into  character, 
minute  anatomists  of  human  thought  and  man's  affections; 
"and  yet,"  muttered  I,  "they  can  sit  at  table  with  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  of  men,  and  be  as  ignorant  of  all 
about  him  as  the  husbandman  who  toils  at  his  daily  labor 
is  of  the  mineral  treasures  that  lie  buried  down  beneath 
him." 

"I  will  read  them  a  lesson,"  thought  I.  "They  shall  see 
that  in  the  humble  guise  of  foot-traveller  it  may  be  the  pleas- 
ure of  men  of  rank  and  station  to  journey."  The  townsfolk, 
when  the  dessert  made  its  appearance,  rose  to  take  their 
departure,  each  before  he  left  the  room  making  a  profound 
obeisance  to  the  general,  and  then  another  but  less  lowly 
act  of  homage  to  the  staff,  showing  by  this  that  strangers 


324  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

were  expected  to  withdraw,  while  the  military  guests  sat 
over  their  wine.  Indeed,  a  very  significant  look  from  the 
last  person  who  left  the  room  conveyed  to  me  the  etiquette  of 
the  place.  I  was  delighted  at  this,  —  it  was  the  very  oppor- 
tunity I  longed  for;  and  so,  with  a  clink  of  my  knife  against 
my  wine-glass,  the  substitute  for  a  bell  in  use  amongst 
humble  hostels,  I  summoned  the  waiter,  and  asked  for  his 
list  of  wines.  I  saw  that  my  act  had  created  some  aston- 
ishment amongst  the  others,  but  it  excitei  nothing  more, 
and  now  they  had  all  lighted  their  pipes,  and  sat  smoking 
away  quite  regardless  of  my  presence.  I  had  ordered  a 
flask  of  Steinberger  at  four  florins,  and  given  most  special 
directions  that  my  glass  should  have  a  "roped  rim,"  and  be 
of  a  tender  green  tint,  but  not  too  deep  to  spoil  the  color  of 
the  wine. 

My  admonitions  were  given  aloud,  and  in  a  tone  of  com- 
mand ;  but  I  perceived  that  they  failed  to  create  any  impres- 
sion upon  my  moustached  neighbors.  I  might  have  ordered 
nectar  or  hypocras,  for  all  that  they  seemed  to  care  about 
me.  I  raked  up  in  memory  all  the  impertinent  and  insolent 
things  Henri  Heine  had  ever  said  of  Austria;  I  bethought 
me  how  they  tyrannized  in  the  various  provinces  of  their 
scattered  empire,  and  how  they  were  hated  by  Hun,  Slavac, 
and  Italian;  I  revelled  in  those  slashing  leading  articles 
that  used  to  show  up  the  great  but  bankrupt  bully,  and  I 
only  wished  I  was  "own  correspondent"  to  something  at 
home  to  give  my  impressions  of  "Austria  and  her  military 
system. " 

Little  as  you  think  of  that  pale  sad-looking  stranger, 
who  sits  sipping  his  wine  in  solitude  at  the  foot  of  the  table, 
he  is  about  to  transmit  yourselves  and  your  country  to  a 
remote  posterity.  "Ay!"  muttered  I,  "to  be  remembered 
when  the  Danube  will  be  a  choked-up  rivulet,  and  the  park 
of  Schonbrunn  a  prairie  for  the  buffalo."  I  am  not  exactly 
aware  how  or  why  these  changes  were  to  have  occurred,  but 
Lord  Macaulay's  New  Zealander  might  have  originated  them. 

While  I  thus  mused  and  brooded,  the  tramp  of  four  horses 
came  clattering  down  the  street,  and  soon  after  swept  into 
the  arched  doorway  of  the  inn  with  a  rolling  and  thunderous 
Bound. 


MY  EXPLOSION  AT  THE  TABLE  D'HOtE.  325 

**Here  he  comes ;  here  he  is  at  last!  said  a  young  officer, 
who  had  rushed  in  haste  to  the  window;  and  at  the  an- 
nouncement a  very  palpable  sentiment  of  satisfaction 
seemed  to  spread  itself  through  the  company,  even  to  the 
grim  old  field-marshal,  who  took  his  pipe  from  his  mouth  to 
say, — 

**He  is  in  time,  — he  saves  *  arrest! '  " 

As  he  spoke,  a  tall  man  in  uniform  entered  the  room,  and 
walking  with  military  step  till  he  came  in  front  of  the 
General,  said,  in  a  loud  but  respectful  voice,  — 

"I  have  the  honor  to  report  myself  as  returned  to  duty." 

The  General  replied  something  I  could  not  catch,  and 
then  shook  him  warmly  by  the  hand,  making  room  for  him 
to  sit  down  next  him, 

"  How  far  did  your  Royal  Highness  go  ?  Not  to  Coire  ?  " 
said  the  General. 

''Far  beyond  it,  sir,"  said  the  other.  "I  went  the  whole 
way  to  the  Spltigen,  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  terror  of  your 
displeasure,  I  'd  have  crossed  the  mountain  and  gone  on  to 
Chiavenna." 

The  fact  that  I  was  listening  to  the  narrative  of  a  royal 
personage  was  not  the  only  bond  of  fascination  to  me,  for 
somehow  the  tone  of  the  speaker's  voice  sounded  familiarly 
to  my  ears,  and  I  could  have  sworn  I  had  heard  it  before. 
As  he  was  at  the  same  side  of  the  table  with  myself,  I 
could  not  see  him;  but  while  he  continued  to  talk,  the 
impression  grew  each  moment  more  strong  that  I  must  have 
met  him  previously. 

I  could  gather  —  it  was  easy  enough  to  do  so  —  from  the 
animated  looks  of  the  party,  and  the  repeated  bursts  of 
laughter  that  followed  his  sallies,  that  the  newly  arrived 
officer  was  a  wit  and  authority  amongst  his  comrades.  His 
elevated  rank,  too,  may  have  contributed  to  this  popularity. 
Must  I  own  that  he  appeared  in  the  character  that  to  me  is 
particularly  offensive?  He  was  a  "narrator."  That  vulgar 
adage  of  "  two  of  a  trade  "  has  a  far  wider  acceptance  when 
applied  to  the  operations  of  intellect  than  when  addressed 
to  the  work  of  men's  hands.  To  see  this  jealousy  at  its 
height,  you  must  look  for  it  amongst  men  of  letters,  artists, 
actors,  or,  better  still,  those  social  performers  who  are  the 


326  A  DAY'S  EIDE. 

bright  spirits  of  dinner-parties,  —  the  charming  men  of 
society.  All  the  animosities  of  political  or  religious  hate 
are  mild  compared  to  the  detestation  this  rivalry  engenders ; 
and  now,  though  the  audience  was  a  foreign  one,  which  I 
could  have  no  pretension  to  amuse,  I  conceived  the  most 
bitter  dislike  for  the  man  who  had  engaged  their  attention. 

I  do  not  know  how  it  may  be  with  others,  but  to  myself 
there  has  always  been  this  diflSculty  in  a  foreign  language, 
that  until  I  have  accustomed  myself  to  the  tone  of  voice 
and  the  manner  of  a  speaker,  I  can  rarely  follow  him  with- 
out occasional  lapses.  Now,  on  the  present  occasion,  the 
narrator,  though  speaking  distinctly,  and  with  a  good 
accent,  had  a  very  rapid  utterance,  and  it  was  not  till  I 
had  familiarized  my  ear  with  his  manner  that  I  could  gather 
his  words  correctly.  Nor  was  my  difficulty  lessened  by  the 
fact  that,  as  he  pretended  to  be  witty  and  epigrammatic, 
frequent  bursts  of  laughter  broke  from  his  audience  and 
obscured  his  speech.  He  was,  as  it  appeared,  giving  an 
account  of  a  fishing  excursion  he  had  just  taken  to  one  of 
the  small  mountain  lakes  near  Poppenheim,  and  it  was 
clear  enough  he  was  one  who  always  could  eke  an  adventure 
out  of  even  the  most  ordinary  incident  of  daily  life. 

This  fishing  story  had  really  nothing  in  it,  though  he 
strove  to  make  out  fifty  points  of  interest  or  striking  situa- 
tions out  of  the  veriest  commonplace.  At  last,  however,  I 
saw  that,  like  a  practised  story-teller,  he  was  hoarding  up 
his  great  incident  for  the  finish. 

"As  I  have  told  you,"  said  he,  "I  engaged  the  entire  of 
the  little  inn  for  myself;  there  were  but  five  rooms  in  it 
altogether,  and  though  I  did  not  need  more  than  two,  I  took 
the  rest,  that  I  might  be  alone  and  unmolested.  Well,  it 
was  on  my  second  evening  there,  as  I  sat  smoking  my  pipe 
at  the  door,  and  looking  over  my  tackle  for  the  morrow, 
there  came  up  the  glen  the  strange  sound  of  wheels,  and, 
to  my  astonishment,  a  travelling-carriage  soon  appeared, 
with  four  horses  driven  in  hand ;  and  as  I  saw  in  a  moment, 
it  was  a  lohnkutscher^  who  had  taken  the  wrong  turning  after 
leaving  Ragatz,  and  mistaken  the  road,  for  the  highway 
ceases  about  two  miles  above  Poppenheim,  and  dwindles 
down  to  a  mere   mule-path.     Leaving  my  host  to  explain 


MY  Ej^x'LOSION  at  THE  TABLE  D'H6tE.  827 

the  mistake  to  the  travellers,  I  hastily  re-entered  the  house, 
just  as  the  carriage  drove  up.  The  explanation  seemed  a 
very  prolix  one,  for  when  I  looked  out  of  the  window,  half 
an  hour  afterwards,  there  were  the  horses  still  standing  at 
the  door,  and  the  driver,  with  a  large  branch  of  alder,  whip- 
ping away  the  flies  from  them,  while  the  host  continued  to 
hold  his  place  at  the  carriage  door.  At  last  he  entered  my 
room,  and  said  that  the  travellers,  two  foreign  ladies,  —  he 
thought  them  Russians,  —  had  taken  the  wrong  road,  but 
that  the  elder,  what  between  fatigue  and  fear,  was  so  over- 
come that  she  could  not  proceed  further,  and  entreated  that 
they  might  be  afforded  any  accommodation  —  mere  shelter 
for  the  night  —  rather  than  retrace  their  road  to  Ragatz. 

"  '  Well,'  said  I,  carelessly,  '  let  them  have  the  rooms  on 
the  other  side  of  the  hall ;  so  that  they  only  stop  for  one 
night,  the  intrusion  will  not  signify. '  Not  a  very  gracious 
reply,  perhaps,  but  I  did  not  want  to  be  gracious.  The  fact 
was,  as  the  old  lady  got  out,  I  saw  something  like  an  ele- 
phant's leg,  in  a  fur  boot,  that  quite  decided  me  on  not 
making  acquaintance  with  the  travellers,  and  I  was  rash 
enough  to  imagine  they  must  be  both  alike.  Indeed,  I  was 
so  resolute  in  maintaining  my  solitude  undisturbed,  that  I 
told  my  host  on  no  account  whatever  to  make  me  any  com- 
munication from  the  strangers,  nor  on  any  pretext  to  let 
ine  feel  that  they  were  lodged  under  the  same  roof  with 
myself.  Perhaps,  if  the  next  day  had  been  one  to  follow 
my  usual  sport,  I  should  have  forgotten  all  about  them,  but 
it  was  one  of  such  rain  as  made  it  perfectly  impossible  to 
leave  the  house.  I  doubt  if  I  ever  saw  rain  like  it.  It 
came  down  in  sheets,  like  water  splashed  out  of  buckets, 
flattening  the  small  trees  to  the  earth,  and  beating  down  all 
the  light  foliage  into  the  muddy  soil  beneath;  meanwhile 
the  air  shook  with  the  noise  of  the  swollen  torrents,  and 
all  the  mountain-streams  crashed  and  thundered  away,  like 
great  cataracts.  Rain  can  really  become  grand  at  such 
moments,  and  no  more  resembling  a  mere  shower  than  the 
cry  of  a  single  brawler  in  the  streets  is  like  the  roar  of  a 
mighty  multitude.  It  was  so  fine  that  I  determined  I  would 
go  down  to  a  little  wooden  bridge  over  the  river,  whence 
I  could   see  the   stream   as   it  came  down,  tumbling  and 


328  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

splashing,  from  a  cleft  in  the  mountain.  I  soon  dressed 
myself  in  all  my  best  waterproofs,  —  hat,  cape,  boots,  and 
all,  —  and  set  out.  Until  I  was  fully  embarked  on  my 
expedition,  I  had  no  notion  of  the  severity  of  the  storm,  and 
it  was  with  considerable  ditficulty  I  could  make  head  against 
the  wind  and  rain  together,  while  the  slippery  ground  made 
walking  an  actual  labor. 

''At  last  I  reached  the  river;  but  of  the  bridge,  the  only 
trace  was  a  single  beam,  which,  deeply  buried  in  the  bank 
at  one  extremity,  rose  and  fell  in  the  surging  flood,  like  the 
arm  of  a  drowning  swimmer.  The  stream  had  completely 
filled  the  channel,  and  swept  along,  with  fragments  of  tim- 
ber, and  even  furniture,  in  its  muddy  tide ;  farm  produce, 
and  implements  too,  came  floating  by,  showing  what  de- 
struction had  been  effected  higher  up  the  river.  As  I  stood 
gazing  on  the  current,  I  saw,  at  a  little  distance  from  me,  a 
man,  standing  motionless  beside  the  river,  and  apparently 
lost  in  thought,  —  so,  at  least,  he  seemed ;  for  though  not  at 
all  clad  in  a  way  to  resist  the  storm,  he  remained  there,  wet 
and  soaked  through,  totally  regardless  of  the  weather.  On 
inquiring  at  the  inn,  I  learned  that  this  was  the  lohnkutscher 
—  the  vetturino  —  of  the  travellers,  and  who,  in  attempting 
to  ascertain  if  the  stream  were  fordable,  had  lost  one  of  hia 
best  horses,  and  barely  escaped  being  carried  away  himself. 
Until  that,  I  had  forgotten  all  about  the  strangers,  who,  it 
now  appeared,  were  close  prisoners  like  myself.  "While  the 
host  was  yet  speaking,  the  lohnkutscher  came  up,  and  in  a 
tone  of  equality,  that  showed  me  he  thought  I  was  in  his 
own  line  of  business,  asked  if  I  would  sell  him  one  of  my 
nags  then  in  the  stable. 

"Not  caring  to  disabuse  him  of  his  error  regarding  my 
rank,  I  did  not  refuse  him  so  flatly  as  I  might,  and  he 
pressed  the  negotiation  very  warmly  in  consequence.  At 
last,  to  get  rid  of  him,  I  declared  that  I  would  not  break  up 
my  team,  and  retired  into  the  house.  I  was  not  many  min- 
utes in  my  room,  when  a  courier  came,  with  a  polite  mes- 
sage from  his  mistress,  to  beg  I  would  speak  with  her.  I 
went  at  once,  and  found  an  old  lady,  —  she  was  English,  as. 
her  French  bespoke,  —  very  well  mannered  and  well  bred, 
who  apologized  for  troubling  me ;  but  having  heard  from  her 


MY  EXPLOSION  AT  THE  TABLE  D'HOTE.     329 

vetturino  that  my  horses  were  disengaged,  and  that  I  might, 
if  not  disposed  to  sell  one  of  them,  hire  out  the  entire  team, 
to  take  their  carriage  as  far  as  Andeer —  By  the  time  she 
got  thus  far,  I  perceived  that  she,  too,  mistook  me  for  a 
lohnkutscher.  It  just  struck  me  what  good  fun  it  would  be 
to  carry  on  the  joke.  To  be  sure,  the  lady  herself  presented 
no  inducement  to  the  enterprise ;  and  as  I  thus  balanced  the 
case,  there  came  into  the  room  one  of  the  prettiest  girls  I 
ever  saw.  She  never  turned  a  look  towards  where  I  was 
standing,  nor  deigned  to  notice  me  at  all,  but  passed  out  of 
the  room  as  rapidly  as  she  entered ;  still,  I  remembered  that 
I  had  already  seen  her  before,  and  passed  a  delightful 
evening  in  her  company  at  a  little  inn  in  the  Black 
Forest." 

When  the  narrator  had  got  thus  far  in  his  story,  I  leaned 
forward  to  catch  a  full  view  of  him,  and  saw,  to  my  sur- 
prise, and,  I  own,  to  my  misery,  that  he  was  the  German 
count  we  had  met  at  the  Titi-See.  So  overwhelming  was 
this  discovery  to  me,  that  I  heard  nothing  for  many  minutes 
after.  All  of  that  wretched  scene  between  us  on  the  last 
evening  at  the  inn  came  full  to  my  memory,  and  I  bethought 
me  of  lying  the  whole  night  on  the  hard  table,  fevered  with 
rage  and  terror  alternately.  If  it  were  not  that  his  narrative 
regarded  Miss  Herbert  now,  I  would  have  skulked  out  of  the 
room,  and  out  of  the  inn,  and  out  of  the  town  itself,  never 
again  to  come  under  the  insolent  stare  of  those  wicked  gray 
eyes ;  but  in  that  name  there  was  a  fascination,  —  not  to 
say  that  a  sense  of  jealousy  burned  at  my  heart  like  a 
furnace. 

The  turmoil  of  my  thought  lost  me  a  great  deal  of  his 
story,  and  might  have  lost  me  more,  had  not  the  hearty 
laughter  of  his  comrades  recalled  me  once  again  to  attention. 

He  was  describing  how,  as  a  vetturino^  he  drove  their  car- 
riage with  his  own  spanking  gray  horses  to  Coire,  and 
thence  to  Andeer.  He  had  bargained,  it  seemed,  that  Miss 
Herbert  should  travel  outside  in  the  cabriolet,  but  she 
failed  to  keep  her  pledge,  so  that  they  only  met  at  stray 
moments  during  the  journey.  It  was  in  one  of  these  she 
said  laughingly  to  him,  — 

"  *  Nothing  would  surprise  me  less  than  to  learn,  some 


330  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

fine  morning,  that  you  were  a  prince  in  disguise,  or  a  great 
count  of  the  empire,  at  least.  It  was  only  the  other  day  we 
were  honored  with  the  incognito  presence  of  a  royal  person- 
age ;  I  do  not  exactly  know  who,  but  Mrs.  Keats  could  tell 
you.     He  left  us  abruptly  at  Schaffhausen.' 

"  'You  can't  mean  the  creature,'  said  I,  'that  I  saw  in 
your  company  at  the  Titi-See?' 

"  '  The  same,'  said  she,  rather  angrily. 

"  '  Why,  he  is  a  saltimbanque ;  I  saw  him  the  morning  I 
came  through  Constance,  with  some  others  of  his  troop 
dragged  before  the  maire  for  causing  a  disturbance  in  a 
cabaret ;  one  of  the  most  consummate  impostors,  they  told 
me,  in  Europe.'" 

"An  infamous  falsehood,  and  a  base  liar  the  man  who 
says  it ! "  cried  I,  springing  to  my  legs,  and  standing  re- 
vealed before  the  company  in  an  attitude  of  haughty  defi- 
ance. "  I  am  the  person  you  have  dared  to  defame.  I  have 
never  assumed  to  be  a  prince,  and  as  little  am  I  a  rope- 
dancer.  I  am  an  English  gentleman,  travelling  for  his 
pleasure,  and  I  hurl  back  every  word  you  have  said  of  me 
with  contempt  and  defiance." 

Before  I  had  finished  this  insolent  speech,  some  half-dozen 
swords  were  drawn  and  brandished  in  the  air,  very  eager,  as 
it  seemed,  to  cut  me  to  pieces,  and  the  Count  himself  required 
all  the  united  strength  of  the  party  to  save  me  from  his 
hands.  At  last  I  was  pushed,  hustled,  and  dragged  out  of 
the  room  to  another  smaller  one  on  the  same  floor,  and,  the 
key  being  turned  on  me,  left  to  my  very  happy  reflections. 


CHAPTER  XXXVin. 

THE    DUEL   WITH   PRINCE   MAX. 

I  HAD  no  writing-materials,  but  I  had  just  composed  a  long 
letter  to  the  "Times"  on  "the  outrageous  treatment  and 
false  imprisonment  of  a  British  subject  in  Austria,"  when 
my  door  was  opened  by  a  thin,  lank-jawed,  fierce-eyed  man 
in  uniform,  who  announced  himself  as  the  Rittmeister  von 
Mahony,  of  the  Keyser  Hussars. 

"  A  countryman  —  an  Irishman,"  said  I,  eagerly,  clasp- 
ing his  hand  with  warmth. 

"  That  is  to  say,  two  generations  back,"  replied  he ;  "  my 
grandfather  Terence  was  a  lieutenant  in  Treuck's  Horse,  but 
since  that  none  of  us  have  ever  been  out  of  Austria." 

If  these  tidings  fell  coldly  on  my  heart,  just  beginning  to 
glow  with  the  ardor  of  home  and  country,  I  soon  saw  that  it 
takes  more  than  two  generations  to  wash  out  the  Irishman 
from  a  man's  nature.  The  honest  Rittmeister,  with  scarcely 
a  word  of  English  in  his  vocabulary,  was  as  hearty  a  coun- 
tryman as  if  he  had  never  journeyed  out  of  the  land  of  Bog. 

He  had  heard  "  all  about  it,"  he  said,  by  way  of  arrest- 
ing the  eloquent  indignation  that  filled  me ;  and  he  added, 
"And  the  more  fool  myself  to  notice  the  matter;"  asking 
me,  quaintly,  if  I  had  never  heard  of  our  native  maxim  that 
says,  "  One  man  ought  never  to  fall  upon  forty."  "  Well," 
said  he,  with  a  sigh,  "what's  done  can't  be  undone;  and 
let  us  see  what  *s  to  come  next  ?  I  see  you  are  a  gentleman, 
and  the  worse  luck  yours." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that?  "  asked  I. 

' '  Just  this :  you  '11  have  to  fight ;  and  if  you  were  a 
'  Gemeiner '  —  a  plebeian  —  you  'd  get  off." 

I  turned  away  to  the  window  to  wipe  a  tear  out  of  my 
eye ;  it  had  come  there  without  my  knowing  it,  and,  as  I 
did  so,  I  devoted  myself  to  the  death  of  a  hero. 


332  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  *'  she  is  in  this  incident  —  she  has  her  part 
in  this  scene  of  my  life's  drama,  and  I  will  not  disgrace  her 
presence.  I  will  die  like  a  man  of  honor  rather  than  that  her 
name  should  be  disparaged." 

He  went  on  to  tell  me  of  my  opponent,  who  was  brother  to 
a  reigning  sovereign,  and  himself  a  royal  highness,  —  Prince 
Max  of  Swabia.  ''  He  was  not,"  he  added,  "  by  any  means 
a  bad  fellow,  though  not  reputed  to  be  perfectly  sane  on  cer- 
tain topics."  However,  as  his  eccentricities  were  very  harm- 
less ones,  merely  offshoots  of  an  exaggerated  personal  vanity^ 
it  was  supposed  that  some  active  service,  and  a  little  more  in- 
tercourse with  the  world,  would  cure  him.  "  Not,"  added  he, 
''  that  one  can  say  he  has  shown  many  signs  of  amendment 
up  to  this,  for  he  never  makes  an  excursion  of  half-a-dozen 
days  from  home  without  coming  back  filled  with  the  resist- 
less passion  of  some  young  queen  or  archduchess  for  him. 
As  he  forgets  these  as  fast  as  he  imagines  them,  there  is 
usually  nothing  to  lament  on  the  subject.  Now  you  are  in 
possession  of  all  that  you  need  know  about  him.  Tell  me 
something  of  yourself ;  and  first,  have  you  served  ?  " 

''Never." 

*'  Was  your  father  a  soldier,  or  your  grandfather  ?  " 

"  Neither." 

''  Have  you  any  connections  on  the  mother's  side  in  the 
army  ?  " 

''  I  am  not  aware  of  one." 

He  gave  a  short,  hasty  cough,  and  walked  the  room 
twice  with  his  hands  clasped  at  his  back,  and  then,  coming 
straight  in  front  of  me,  said,  ''And  your  name?  What's 
your  name?  " 

"  Potts  !  Potts !  "  said  I,  with  a  firm  energy. 

"  Potztausend !"  cried  he,  with  a  grim  laugh:  "what  a 
strange  name !  " 

"I  said  Potts,  Herr  Rittmeister,  and  not  Potztausend,'* 
rejoined  I,  haughtily. 

"  And  I  heard  you,"  said  he  ;  "  it  was  involuntarily  on  my 
part  to  add  the  termination.  And  who  are  the  Pottses?  Are 
they  noble?" 

"Nothing  of  the  kind,  —  respectable  middle-class  folk; 
some  in   trade,   some   clerks   in   mercantile    houses,    some 


THE  DUEL  WITH  PRINCE  MAX.  333 

holding  small  government  employments,  one,  perhaps  the 
chief  of  the  family,  an  eminent  apothecary !  " 

As  if  I  had  uttered  the  most  irresistible  joke,  at  this  word 
he  held  his  hands  over  his  face  and  shook  with  laughter. 

"Heilge  Joseph!"  cried  he,  at  last,  *'this  is  too  good! 
The  Prince  Max  going  out  with  an  apothecary's  nephew,  or, 
maybe,  his  son  !  " 

"  His  son  upon  this  occasion,"  said  I,  gravely. 

He,  did  not  reply  for  some  minutes,  and  then,  leaning 
over  the  back  of  a  chair,  and  regarding  me  very  fixedly, 
he  said,  — 

"  You  have  only  to  say  who  you  are,  and  what  your  be- 
longings, and  nothing  will  come  of  this  affair.  In  fact,  what 
with  your  little  knowledge  of  German,  your  imperfect  com- 
prehension of  what  the  Prince  said,  and  your  own  station 
in  life,  I'll  engage  to  arrange  everything  and  get  you  off 
clear ! " 

''  In  a  word,"  said  I,  "  I  am  to  plead  in  formd  inferioris, 
—  is  n't  that  it  ?  " 

"Just  so,"  said  he,  puflSng  out  a  long  cloud  from  his 
pipe. 

''  I  'd  rather  die  first !  "  cried  I,  with  an  energy  that  actually 
startled  him. 

''  Well,"  said  he,  after  a  pause,  "  I  think  it  is  very  proba- 
ble that  will  come  of  it ;  but,  if  it  be  your  choice,  I  have 
nothing  to  say." 

"  Go  back,  Herr  Rittmeister,"  cried  I,  *'  and  arrange  the 
meeting  for  the  very  earliest  moment." 

I  said  this  with  a  strong  purpose,  for  I  felt  if  the  event 
were  to  come  off  at  once  I  could  behave  well. 

"  As  you  are  resolved  on  this  course,"  said  he,  "  do  not 
make  any  such  confidences  to  others  as  you  have  made  to 
me ;  nothing  about  those  Pottses  in  haberdashery  and  dry 
goods,  but  just  simply  you  are  the  high  and  well-born 
Potts  of  Pottsheim.     Not  a  word  more." 

I  bowed  an  assent,  but  so  anxious  was  he  to  impress  this 
upon  me  that  he  went  over  it  all  once  more. 

"As  it  will  be  for  me  to  receive  the  Prince's  message,  the 
choice  of  weapons  will  be  yours.  What  are  you  most  expert 
with?     I  mean,  after  the  pistol?"  said  he,  grinning. 


834  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

"I  am  about  equally  skilled  in  all.  Rapier,  pistol,  or 
sabre  are  all  alike  to  me." 

''''Ber  Teufel!"  cried  he:  "I  was  not  counting  upon  this; 
and  as  the  sabre  is  the  Prince's  weakest  arm,  we  '11  select 
it." 

I  bowed  again,  and  more  blandly. 

''There  is  but  one  thing  more,"  said  he,  turning  about  just 
as  he  was  leaving  the  room.  "Don't  forget  that  in  this 
case  the  gross  provocation  came  from  you^  and,  therefore, 
be  satisfied  with  self-defence,  or,  at  most,  a  mere  flesh 
wound.  Remember  that  the  Prince  is  a  near  connection  of 
the  Royal  Family  of  England,  and  it  would  be  irreparable 
ruin  to  you  were  he  to  fall  by  your  hand."  And  with  this 
he  went  out. 

Now,  had  he  gravely  bound  me  over  not  to  strangle  the 
lions  in  the  Tower,  it  could  not  have  appeared  more  ridicu- 
lous to  me  than  this  injunction,  and  if  there  had  been  in  my 
heart  the  smallest  fund  of  humor,  I  could  have  laughed  at 
it;  but,  Heaven  knows,  none  of  my  impulses  took  a  mirthful 
turn  at  that  moment,  and  there  never  was  invented  the 
drollery  that  could  wring  a  smile  from  me. 

I  was  sitting  in  a  sort  of  stupor  —  I  know  not  how  long 
—  when  the  door  opened,  and  the  Rittmeister's  head  peered 
in. 

"To-morrow  morning  at  five!"  cried  he.  "I  will  fetch 
you  half  an  hour  before."  The  door  closed,  and  he  was 
off. 

It  was  now  a  few  minutes  past  eight  o'clock,  and  there 
were,  therefore,  something  short  of  nine  hours  of  life  left 
to  me.  I  have  heard  that  Victor  Hugo  is  an  amiable  and 
kindly  disposed  man,  and  I  feel  assured,  if  he  ever  could 
have  known  the  tortures  he  would  have  inflicted,  he  would 
never  have  designed  the  terrible  record  entitled  "Le  Dernier 
Jour  d'un  Condamne."  I  conclude  it  was  designed  as  a 
sort  of  appeal  against  death  punishments.  I  doubt  much 
of  its  efficacy  in  altering  legislation,  while  I  feel  assured, 
that  if  ever  it  fall  in  the  way  of  one  whose  hours  are  num- 
bered, it  must  add  indescribably  to  his  misery. 

When,  how,  or  by  whom  my  supper  was  served,  I  never 
knew.     I  can  onlv  remember  that  a  very  sleepy  waiter  roused 


THE  DUEL  WITH  PRINCE  MAX.  335 

me  out  of  a  half -drowsy  revery  about  midnight,  by  asking 
if  he  were  to  remove  the  dishes,  or  let  them  remain  till 
morning.  I  bade  him  leave  them,  and  me  also,  and  when 
the  door  was  closed  I  sat  down  to  my  meal.  It  was  cold 
and  unappetizing.  I  would  have  deemed  it  unwholesome, 
too,  but  I  remembered  that  the  poor  stomach  it  was  destined 
for  would  never  be  called  on  to  digest  it,  and  that  for  once 
I  might  transgress  without  the  fear  of  dyspepsia.  My  case 
was  precisely  that  of  the  purseless  traveller,  who,  we  are 
told,  can  sing  before  the  robber,  just  as  if  want  ever  sug- 
gested melody,  or  that  being  poor  was  a  reason  for  song. 
So  with  me  any  excess  was  open  to  me  just  because  it  was 
impossible ! 

"Still,"  thought  I,  "great  criminals  —  and  surely  I  am 
not  as  bad  as  they  —  eat  very  heartily."  And  so  I  cut  the 
tough  fowl  vigorously  in  two,  and  placed  half  of  it  on  my 
plate.  I  filled  myself  out  a  whole  goblet  of  wine,  and 
drank  it  off.  I  repeated  this,  and  felt  better.  I  fell  to  now 
with  a  will,  and  really  made  an  excellent  supper.  There 
were  some  potted  sardines  that  I  secretly  resolved  to  have 
for  my  breakfast,  when  the  sudden  thought  flashed  across 
me  that  I  was  never  to  breakfast  any  more.  I  verily  be- 
lieve that  I  tasted  in  that  one  instant  a  whole  life  long  of 
agony  and  bitterness. 

There  was  in  my  friendless,  lone  condition,  my  youth,  the 
mild  and  gentle  traits  of  my  nature,  and  my  guileless 
simplicity,  just  that  combination  of  circumstances  which 
would  make  my  fate  peculiarly  pathetic,  and  I  imagined  my 
countrymen  standing  beside  the  gravestone  and  muttering 
"Poor  Potts!"  till  I  felt  my  heart  almost  bursting  with 
sorrow  over  myself. 

"Cut  off  at  three-and- twenty ! "  sobbed  I;  "in  the  very 
opening  bud  of  his  promise !  " 

"Misfortune  is  a  pebble  with  many  facets,"  says  the 
Chinese  adage,  "and  wise  is  he  who  turns  it  around  till  he 
find  the  smooth  one." 

"Is  there  such  here?"  thought  I.  "And  where  can  it 
be?"  With  all  my  ingenuity  I  could  not  discover  it,  when 
at  last  there  crossed  my  mind  how  the  event  would  figure  in 
the  daily  papers,  and  be  handed  down  to  remote  posterity.    I 


336  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

imagined  the  combat  itself  described  in  the  language  almost 
of  a  lion-hunt.  "Potts,  who  had  never  till  that  moment 
had  a  sword  in  his  hand,  —  Potts,  though  at  this  time 
severely  wounded,  and  bleeding  profusely,  nothing  dismayed 
by  the  ferocious  attack  of  his  opponent,  —  Potts  main- 
tained his  guard  with  all  the  coolness  of  a  consummate 
swordsman."  How  I  wished  my  life  might  be  spared  just 
to  let  me  write  the  narrative  of  the  combat.  I  would  like, 
besides,  to  show  the  world  how  generously  I  could  treat  an 
adversary,  with  what  delicacy  I  could  respect  his  motives, 
and  how  nobly  deal  even  with  his  injustice. 

*'Was  that  two  o'clock?"  said  I,  starting  up,  while  the 
humming  sound  of  the  gong  bell  filled  the  room.  "Is  it 
possible  that  but  three  hours  now  stand  between  me  and  —  " 
I  gave  a  shudder  that  made  me  feel  as  if  I  was  standing 
in  a  fearful  thorough  draught,  and  actually  looked  up  to 
see  if  the  window  were  not  open;  but  no,  it  was  closed, 
the  night  calm,  and  the  sky  full  of  stars.  "Oh!"  ex- 
claimed I,  "if  there  are  Pottses  up  amongst  you  yonder, 
I  hope  destiny  may  deal  more  kindly  by  them  than  down 
here.  I  trust  that  in  those  glorious  regions  a  higher  and 
purer  intelligence  prevails,  and,  above  all  things,  that  duel- 
ling is  proclaimed  the  greatest  of  crimes."  Remnant  of 
barbarism!  it  is  worse  ten  thousand  times;  it  is  the  whole 
suit,  costume,  and  investure  of  an  uncivilized  age.  "Poor 
Potts!"  said  I;  "you  went  out  upon  your  life-voyage  with 
very  generous  intentions  towards  posterity.  I  wonder  how 
it  will  treat  you  ?  Will  it  vindicate  your  memory,  uphold 
your  fame,  and  dignify  your  motives?  Will  it  be  said  in 
history,  '  Amongst  the  memorable  events  of  the  period  was 
the  duel  between  the  Prince  Max  of  Swabia  and  an  Irish 
gentleman  named  Potts.  To  understand  fully  the  circum- 
stance of  this  remarkable  conflict,  it  is  necessary  to  premise 
that  Potts  was  not  what  is  vulgarly  called  constitutionally 
brave;  but  he  was  more.  He  was  —  '?  Ah!  there  was  the 
puzzle.  How  was  that  miserable  biographer  ever  to  arrive 
at  the  secret  of  an  organization  fine  and  subtle  as  mine? 
If  I  could  but  leave  it  on  record  —  if  I  could  but  transmit 
to  the  ages  that  will  come  after  me  the  invaluable  key  to  the 
mystery  of  my  being  —  a  few  days  would  suffice  —  a  week 


THE  DUEL  WITH  PRINCE  MAX.  337 

certainly  would  do  it  —  and  why  should  I  not  have  time 
given  me  for  this  ?  I  will  certainly  propose  this  to  the  Ritt- 
meister  when  he  comes.  There  can  be  little  doubt  but  he 
will  see  the  matter  with  my  own  eyes." 

As  if  I  had  summoned  him  by  enchantment,  there  he  stood 
at  the  door,  wrapped  in  his  great  white  cavalry  cloak,  and 
looking  gigantic  and  ominous  together. 

"There  is  no  carriage-road,"  said  he,  "to  the  place  we  are 
going,  and  1  have  come  thus  early  that  we  may  stroll  along 
leisurely,  and  enjoy  the  fresh  air  of  the  morning." 

Until  that  moment  I  had  never  believed  how  heartless  hu- 
man nature  could  be!  To  talk  of  enjoyment,  to  recall  the 
world  and  its  pleasures,  in  any  way,  to  one  situated  like  I, 
was  a  bold  and  scarcely  credible  cruelty ;  but  the  words  did 
me  good  service ;  they  armed  me  with  a  sardonic  contempt 
for  life  and  mankind ;  and  so  I  protested  that  I  was  charmed 
with  the  project,  and  out  we  set. 

My  companion  was  not  talkative ;  he  was  a  quiet,  almost 
•depressed  man,  who  had  led  a  very  monotonous  existence, 
with  little  society  among  his  comrades ;  so  that  he  did  not 
offer  me  the  occasion  I  sought  for,  of  saying  saucy  and 
sneering  things  of  the  world  at  large.  Indeed,  the  first 
obsei*vation  he  made  was,  that  we  were  in  a  locality  that 
ought  to  be  interesting  to  Irishmen,  since  an  ancient  shrine 
of  St.  Patrick  marked  the  spot  of  the  convent  to  which  we 
were  approaching.  No  remark  could  have  been  more  ill- 
timed  !  to  look  back  into  the  past,  one  ought  to  have  some 
vista  of  the  future.  Who  can  sympathize  with  bygones 
when  he  is  counting  the  minutes  that  are  to  make  him  one 
of  them  ? 

What  a  bore  that  old  Rittmeister  was  with  his  antiquities, 
and  how  I  hated  him  as  he  said,  "If  your  time  was  not  so 
limited  I  'd  have  taken  you  over  to  St.  Gallen  to  inspect  the 
manuscripts."  I  felt  choking  as  he  uttered  these  words. 
How  was  my  time  so  limited?  I  did  not  dare  to  ask.  Was 
he  barbarous  enough  to  mean  that  if  I  had  another  day  to 
live  I  might  have  passed  it  pleasantly  in  turning  over 
musty  missals  in  a  monastery  ? 

At  last  we  came  to  a  halt  in  a  little  grove  of  pines,  and 
he  said,  "Have  you  any  address  to  give  me  of  friends  or 

22 


338  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

relatives,  or  have  you  any  peculiar  directions  on  any 
subject  ?  " 

"You  made  a  remark  last  night,  Herr  Rittmeister,"  said 
I,  "which  did  not  at  the  moment  produce  the  profound  im- 
pression upon  me  that  subsequent  reflection  has  enforced. 
You  said  that  if  his  Royal  Highness  were  fully  aware  that 
his  antagonist  was  the  son  of  a  practising  chemist  and 
apothecary  —  " 

"That  I  could  have,  put  off  this  event;  true  enough,  but 
when  you  refused  that  alternative,  and  insisted  on  satisfac- 
tion, I  myself,  as  your  countryman,  gave  the  guarantee  for 
your  rank,  which  nothing  now  will  make  me  retract.  Under- 
stand me  well,  —  nothing  will  make  me  retract. " 

"Y^ou  are  pleased  to  be  precipitate,"  said  I,  with  an 
attempt  to  sneer;  "my  remark  had  but  one  object,  and  that 
was  my  personal  disinclination  to  obtain  a  meeting  under  a 
false  pretext.'* 

"  Make  your  mind  easy  on  that  score.  It  will  be  all  pre- 
cisely the  same  in  about  an  hour  hence." 

I  nearly  fainted  as  I  heard  this ;  it  seemed  as  though  a 
cold  stream  of  water  ran  through  my  spine  and  paralyzed 
the  very  marrow  inside. 

"You  have  your  choice  of  weapons,"  said  he,  curtly; 
"which  are  you  best  at?  " 

I  was  going  to  say  the  "javelin,"  but  I  was  ashamed; 
and  yet  should  a  man  sacrifice  life  for  a  false  modesty? 
While  I  reasoned  thus,  he  pointed  to  a  group  of  officers 
close  to  the  garden  wall  of  the  convent,  and  said,  — 

"They  are  all  waiting  yonder;  let  us  hasten  on." 

If  I  had  been  mortally  wounded,  and  was  dragging  my 
feeble  limbs  along  to  rest  them  forever  on  some  particular 
spot,  I  might  have,  probably,  effected  my  progress  as 
easily  as  I  now  did.  The  slightest  inequality  of  ground 
tripped  me,  and  I  stumbled  at  every  step. 

"You  are  cold,"  said  my  companion,  "and  probabl}^ 
unused  to  early  rising, — taste  this." 

He  gave  me  his  brandy-flask,  and  I  finished  it  off  at  a 
draught.  Blessings  be  on  the  man  who  invented  alcohol  \ 
All  the  ethics  that  ever  were  written  cannot  work  the  same 
miracle  in  a  man's  nature  as  a  glass  of  whiskey.     Talk  of 


THE  DUEL  WITH  PRINCE  MAX.  339 

all  the  wonders  of  chemistry,  and  what  are  they  to  the  sim- 
ple fact  that  twopennyworth  of  cognac  can  convert  a  coward 
into  a  hero? 

I  was  not  quite  sure  that  my  antagonist  had  not  resorted 
to  a  similar  sort  of  aid,  for  he  seemed  as  light-hearted  and 
as  jolly  as  though  he  was  out  for  a  picnic.  There  was  a 
jauntiness,  too,  in  the  way  he  took  out  his  cigar,  and 
scraped  his  lucifer-match  on  a  beech-tree,  that  quite  struck 
me,  and  I  should  like  to  have  imitated  it  if  I  could. 

''If  it's  the  same  to  you,  take  the  sabre,  it's  his  weakest 
weapon,"  whispered  the  Rittmeister  in  my  ear;  and  I 
agreed.  And  now  there  was  a  sort  of  commotion  about 
the  choice  of  the  ground  and  the  places,  in  which  my  friend 
seemed  to  stand  by  me  most  manfully.  Then  there  followed 
a  general  measurement  of  swords,  and  a  fierce  comparison 
of  weapons.  I  don't  know  how  many  were  not  thrust  into 
my  hand,  one  saying,  "Take  this,  it  is  well  balanced  in  the 
wrist;  or  if  you  like  a  heavy  guard,  here  's  your  arm!  " 

"To  me,  it  is  a  matter  of  perfect  indifference,"  said  I, 
jauntily.     "All  weapons  are  alike." 

"He  will  attack  fiercely,  and  the  moment  the  word  is 
given,"  whispered  the  Rittmeister,  "so  be  on  your  guard; 
keep  your  hilt  full  before  you,  or  he  '11  slice  off  your  nose 
before  you  are  aware  of  it." 

"Be  not  so  sure  of  that  till  you  have  seen  my  sword  play," 
said  I,  fiercely;  and  my  heart  swelled  with  a  fierce  senti- 
ment that  must  have  been  courage,  for  I  never  remember  to 
have  felt  the  like  before.  I  know  I  was  brave  at  that 
moment,  for  if,  by  one  word,  I  could  have  averted  the 
combat,  I  would  not  have  uttered  it. 

"To  your  places,"  cried  the  umpire,  "and  on  your  guard! 
Are  you  ready  ?  " 

"Ready !  "  re-echoed  I,  wildly,  while  I  gave  a  mad  flourish 
of  my  weapon  round  my  head  that  threw  the  whole  company 
into  a  roar  of  laughter;  and,  at  the  same  instant,  two 
figures,  screaming  fearfully,  rushed  from  the  beech  copse, 
and,  bursting  their  way  through  the  crowd,  fell  upon  me 
with  the  most  frantic  embraces,  amidst  the  louder  laughter 
of  the  others.  O  shame  and  ineffable  disgrace !  O  misery 
never  to  be  forgotten !     It  was  Vaterchen  who  now  grasped 


340  A  DAY'S  BIDE. 

my  knees,  and  Tintefleck  who  clung  round  my  neck  and 
kissed  me  repeatedly.  From  the  time  of  the  Laocoon,  no 
one  ever  struggled  to  free  himself  as  I  did,  but  all  in  vain ; 
my  efforts,  impeded  by  the  sword,  lest  I  might  unwillingly 
wound  them,  were  all  fruitless,  and  we  rolled  upon  the 
ground  inextricably  commingled  and  struggling. 

" Was  I  right ?  "  cried  the  Prince.  "Was  I  right  in  call- 
ing this  fellow  a  saltimbanque  ?  See  him  now  with  his 
comrades  around  him,  and  say  if  I  was  mistaken." 

"How  is  this?"  whispered  the  Rittmeister.  "Have 
you  dared  to  deceive  me  ?  " 

"I  have  deceived  no  one,"  said  I,  trying  to  rise;  and  I 
poured  forth  a  torrent  of  not  very  coherent  eloquence,  as  the 
mirth  of  my  audience  seemed  to  imply;  but,  fortunately, 
Vaterchen  had  now  obtained  a  hearing,  and  was  detailing 
in  very  fluent  language  the  nature  of  the  relations  between 
us.  Poor  old  fellow,  in  his  boundless  gratitude  I  seemed 
more  than  human;  and  his  praises  actually  shamed  me  to 
hear  them.  How  I  had  first  met  them,  he  recounted  in  the 
strain  of  one  assisted  by  the  gods  in  classic  times;  his 
description  made  me  a  sort  of  Jove  coming  down  on  a  rosy 
cloud  to  succor  suffering  humanity ;  and  then  came  in  Tin- 
tefleck with  her  broken  words,  marvellously  aided  by 
"action,"  as  she  poured  forth  the  heap  of  gold  upon  the 
grass,  and  said  it  was  all  mine! 

Wonderful  metal,  to  be  sure,  for  enforcing  conviction  on 
the  mind  of  man;  there  is  a  sincerity  about  it  far  more 
impressive  than  any  vocal  persuasion.  The  very  clink  of 
it  implies  that  the  real  and  the  positive  are  in  question,  not 
the  imaginary  and  the  delusive.  "This  is  all  his!  "  cried 
she,  pointing  to  the  treasure  with  the  air  of  one  showing 
Aladdin's  cave;  and  though  her  speech  was  not  very  intel- 
ligible, Vaterchen's  "vulgate"  ran  underneath  and  explained 
the  text. 

"I  hope  you  will  forgive  me.  I  trust  you  will  be  satis- 
fied with  my  apologies,  made  thus  openly,"  said  the  Prince, 
in  the  most  courteous  of  manners.  "One  who  can  behave 
with  such  magnanimity  can  scarcely  be  wanting  in  another 
species  of  generosity."  And  ere  I  could  well  reply,  I  found 
myself  shaking  hands  with  every  one,  and  every  one  with 
me;  nor  was  the  least  pleasurable  part  of  this  recognition 


THE  DUEL  WITH  PRINCE  MAX.        341 

the  satisfaction  displayed  by  the  Rittmeister  at  the  good 
issue  of  this  event.  I  had  great  difficulty  in  resisting  their 
resolution  to  carry  me  back  with  them  to  Bregenz.  Innum- 
erable were  the  plans  and  projects  devised  for  my  entertain- 
ment. Field  sports,  sham  fights,  rifle-shooting,  all  were 
displayed  attractively  before  me;  and  it  was  clear  that,  if 
I  accepted  their  invitations,  I  should  be  treated  like  the 
most  favored  guest.  But  I  was  firm  in  my  refusal ;  and, 
pleading  a  pretended  necessity  to  be  at  a  particular  place 
by  a  particular  day,  I  started  once  more,  taking  the  road 
with  the  "vagabonds,"  who  now  seemed  bound  to  me  by 
an  indissoluble  bond ;  at  least,  so  Vaterchen  assured  me  by 
the  most  emphatic  of  declarations,  and  that,  do  with  him 
what  I  might,  he  was  my  slave  till  death. 

"Who  is  ever  completely  happy?"  says  the  sage;  and 
with  too  good  reason  is  the  doubt  expressed.  Here,  one 
might  suppose,  was  a  situation  abounding  with  the  most 
pleasurable  incidents.  To  have  escaped  a  duel,  and  come 
out  with  honor  and  credit  from  the  issue ;  to  have  re-found 
not  only  my  missing  money,  but  to  have  my  suspicions 
relieved  as  to  those  whose  honest  name  was  dear  to  me,  and 
whose  discredit  would  have  darkened  many  a  bright  hope  of 
life,  —  these  were  no  small  successes ;  and  yet  —  I  shame  to 
own  it  —  my  delight  in  them  was  dashed  by  an  incident  so 
small  and  insignificant  that  I  have  scarce  courage  to  recall 
it.  Here  it  is,  however:  While  I  was  taking  a  kindly  fare- 
well of  my  military  friends,  hand-shaking  and  protesting 
interminable  friendships,  I  saw,  or  thought  I  saw,  the 
Prince,  with  even  a  more  affectionate  warmth,  making  his 
adieus  to  Tintefleck !  If  he  had  not  his  arm  actually  round 
her  waist,  there  was  certainly  a  white  leather  cavalry  glove 
curiously  attached  to  her  side,  and  one  of  her  cheeks  was 
deeper  colored  than  the  other,  and  her  bearing  and  manner 
seemed  confused  so  that  she  answered,  when  spoken  to,  at 
cross-purposes. 

"How  did  you  come  by  this  brooch,  Tintefleck?  I  never 
saw  it  before." 

"Oh,  is  it  not  pretty?  It  is  a  violet;  and  these  leaves, 
though  green,  are  all  gold." 

"Answer  me,  girl!  who  gave  it  thee?"  said  I,  in  the  voice 
of  Othello. 


342  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

^^  Must  I  tell  ?  "  murmured  she,  sorrowfully. 

"On  the  spot,  — confess  it!  " 

"It  was  one  who  bade  me  keep  it  till  he  should  bring  me 
a  prettier  one.  '* 

"I  do  not  care  for  what  he  said,  or  what  you  promised. 
I  want  his  name." 

"And  that  I  was  never  to  forget  him  till  then,  — never.'* 

"Do  you  say  this  to  irritate  and  offend  me,  or  do  you 
prevaricate  out  of  shame  ?  "  said,  I  angrily. 

"Shame!"  repeated  she,  haughtily. 

"Ay,  shame  or  fear." 

"Or  fear!     Fear  of  what,  or  of  whom?  " 

"You  are  very  daring  to  ask  me.  And  now,  for  the  last 
time,  Tintefleck,  —  for  the  last  time,  I  say,  who  gave  you 
this?" 

As  I  said  these  words  we  had  just  reached  the  borders  of 
a  little  rivulet,  over  which  we  were  to  cross  by  stepping- 
stones.  Vaterchen  was,  as  usual,  some  distance  behind, 
and  now  calling  to  us  to  wait  for  him.  She  turned  at  his 
cry,  and  answered  him,  but  made  no  reply  to  me. 

This  continued  defiance  of  me  overcame  my  temper  alto- 
gether, sorely  pushed  as  it  was  by  a  stupid  jealousy,  and, 
seizing  her  wrist  with  a  strong  grasp,  I  said,  in  a  slow, 
measured  tone,  "  I  insist  upon  your  answer  to  my  question, 
or  —  " 

"Or  what?" 

"That  we  part  here,  and  forever." 

"With  all  my  heart.  Only  remember  one  thing,"  said 
she,  in  a  low,  whispering  voice :  "  you  left  me  once  before, 
—  you  quitted  me,  in  a  moment  of  temper,  just  as  you 
threaten  it  now.  Go,  if  you  will,  or  if  you  must ;  but  let 
this  be  our  last  meeting  and  last  parting." 

"It  is  as  such  I  mean  it,  —  good-bye!  "  I  sprang  on  the 
stepping-stone  as  I  spoke,  and  at  the  same  instant  a  glitter- 
ing object  splashed  into  the  stream  close  to  me.  I  saw  it, 
just  as  one  might  see  the  lustre  of  a  trout's  back  as  it  rose 
to  a  fly.  I  don't  know  what  demon  sat  where  my  heart 
ought  to  have  been,  but  I  pressed  my  hat  over  my  eyes,  and 
went  on  without  turning  my  head. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

ON   THE    EDGE    OF   A   TORRENT. 

Very  conflicting  and  very  mixed  were  my  feelings,  as  I  set 
forth  alone.  I  had  come  well,  very  well,  out  of  a  trying 
emergency.  I  was  neither  driven  to  pretend  I  was  some- 
thing other  than  myself,  with  grand  surroundings,  and  illus- 
trious belongings,  nor  had  I  masqueraded  under  a  feigned 
name  and  a  false  history;  but  as  Potts,  son  of  Potts  the 
apothecary,  I  had  carried  my  head  high  and  borne  myself 
creditably. 

Magna  est  Veritas^  indeed!  I  am  not  so  sure  of  the 
prcevalebit  semper,  but,  assuredly,  where  it  does  succeed, 
the  success  is  wonderful. 

Heaven  knows  into  what  tortuous  entanglements  might 
my  passion  for  the  "imaginative  "  —  I  liked  this  name  for  it 
—  have  led  me,  had  I  given  way  to  one  of  my  usual  tempta- 
tions. In  more  than  one  of  my  flights  have  I  found  myself 
carried  up  into  a  region,  and  have  had  to  sustain  an  atmos- 
phere very  unsuited  to  my  respiration,  and  now,  with  the 
mere  prudence  of  walking  on  the  terra  firma,  and  treading 
the  common  highway  of  life,  I  found  I  had  reached  my  goal 
safely  and  speedily.  Flowers  do  not  assume  to  be  shrubs, 
nor  shrubs  affect  to  be  forest  trees ;  the  limestone  and  granite 
never  pretend  that  they  are  porphyry  and  onyx.  Nature  is 
real,  and  why  should  man  alone  be  untruthful  and  unreal  ? 
If  I  liked  these  reflections,  and  tried  to  lose  myself  in  them, 
it  was  in  the  hope  of  shutting  out  others  less  gratifying ; 
but,  do  what  I  would,  there,  before  me,  arose  the  image  of 
Catinka,  as  she  stood  at  the  edge  of  the  rivulet,  that  stream 
which  seemed  to  cut  me  off  from  one  portion  of  my  life, 
and  make  the  past  irrevocably  gone  forever. 


S44  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

1  am  certain  I  was  quite  right  in  parting  with  that  girl. 
Any  respectable  man,  a  father  of  a  family,  would  have 
applauded  me  for  severing  this  dangerous  connection. 
What  could  come  of  such  association  except  unhappiness? 
"Potts,"  would  the  biographer  say,  — "Potts  saw,  with  the 
unerring  instinct  of  his  quick  perception,  that  this  young 
creature  would  one  day  or  other  have  laid  at  his  feet  the 
burnt-offering  of  her  heart,  and  then,  what  could  he 
have  done?  If  Potts  had  been  less  endowed  with  genius, 
or  less  armed  in  honesty,  he  had  not  anticipated  this  peril, 
or,  foreseeing,  had  undervalued  it.  But  he  both  saw  and 
feared  it.  How  very  differently  had  a  libertine  reasoned 
out  this  situation !"  And  then  I  thought  how  wicked  I  might 
have  been,  —  a  monster  of  crime  and  atrocity.  Every  one 
knows  the  sensation  of  lying  snugly  a-bed  on  a  stormy  night, 
and,  as  the  rain  plashes  and  the  wind  howls,  drawing  more 
closely  ground  him  the  coverlet,  and  the  selfish  satisfaction 
of  his  own  comfort,  heightened  by  all  the  possible  hardships 
of  others  outside.  In  the  same  benevolent  spirit,  but  not 
by  any  means  so  reprehensible,  is  it  pleasant  to  imagine 
oneself  a  great  criminal,  standing  in  the  dock,  to  be  stared 
at  by  a  horror-struck  public,  photographed,  shaved,  prison 
costumed,  exhorted,  sentenced,  and  then,  just  as  the  last 
hammer  has  driven  the  last  nail  into  the  scaffold,  and  the 
great  bell  has  tolled  out,  to  find  that  you  are  sitting  by  your 
wood  fire,  with  your  curtain  drawn,  your  uncut  volume  beside 
you,  and  your  peculiar  weakness,  be  it  tea,  or  sherry-cobbler, 
at  your  elbow.  I  constantly  take  a  "rise  "  out  of  myself  in 
this  fashion,  and  rarely  a  week  goes  over  that  I  have  not 
either  poisoned  a  sister  or  had  a  shot  at  the  Queen.  It  is 
a  sort  of  intellectual  Russian  bath,  in  which  the  luxury  con- 
sists in  the  exaggerated  alternative  between  being  scalded 
first  and  rolled  in  the  snow  afterwards.  It  was  in  this 
figurative  snow  I  was  now  disporting  myself,  pleasantly  and 
refreshingly,  and  yet  remorse,  like  a  sturdy  dun,  stood  at 
my  gate,  and  refused  to  go  away. 

Had  I,  indeed,  treated  her  harshly, —  had  I  rejected  the 
offer  of  her  young  and  innocent  heart?  Very  puzzling  and 
embarrassing  question  this,  and  especially  to  a  man  who  had 
nothing  of  the  coxcomb  in  his  nature,  none  of  that  prompt- 


ON  THE  EDGE   OF  A  TORRENT.  345 

ing  of  self-love  that  would  suggest  a  vain  reply.  I  felt  that 
it  was  very  natural  she  should  have  been  struck  by  the 
attractive  features  of  my  character,  but  I  felt  this  without  a 
particle  of  conceit.  I  even  experienced  a  sense  of  sorrow 
as  I  thought  over  it,  just  as  a  conscientious  siren  might 
have  regretted  that  nature  had  endowed  her  with  such  a 
charming  voice ;  and  this  duty  —  for  it  was  a  duty  —  dis- 
charged, I  bethought  me  of  my  own  future.  I  had  a  mis- 
sion, which  was  to  see  Kate  Herbert  and  give  her  Miss 
Crof ton's  letter.  In  doing  so,  I  must  needs  throw  off  all 
disguises  and  mockeries,  and  be  Potts,  the  very  creature 
she  sneered  at,  the  man  whose  mere  name  was  enough  to 
suggest  a  vulgar  life  and  a  snob's  nature!  No  matter  what 
misery  it  may  give,  I  will  do  it  manfully.  She  may  never 
appreciate  —  the  world  at  large  may  never  appreciate  —  what 
noble  motives  were  hidden  beneath  these  assumed  natures, 
mere  costumes  as  they  were,  to  impart  more  vigor  and  per- 
suasiveness to  sentiments  which,  uttered  in  the  undress  of 
Potts,  would  have  carried  no  convictions  with  them. 
Play  Macbeth  in  a  paletot,  perform  Othello  in  "pegtops," 
and  see  what  effect  you  will  produce !  Well,  my  pretended 
station  and  rank  were  the  mere  gauds  and  properties  that 
gave  force  to  my  opinions.  And  now  to  relinquish  these, 
and  be  the  actor,  in  the  garish  light  of  the  noonday,  and  a 
shabby-genteel  coat  and  hat!  "I  will  do  it,"  muttered  I, 
—  *'I  will  do  it,  but  the  suffering  will  be  intense!  "  When 
the  prisoner  sentenced  to  a  long  captivity  is  no  more 
addressed  by  his  name,  but  simply  called  No.  18,  or  43,  it 
is  said  that  the  shock  seems  to  kill  the  sense  of  identity 
with  him,  and  that  nothing  more  tends  to  that  stolid  air  of 
indifference,  that  hopeless  inactivity  of  feature,  so  charac- 
teristic of  a  prison  life ;  in  the  very  same  way  am  I  affected 
when  limited  to  my  Potts  nature,  and  condemned  to  confine 
myself  within  the  narrow  bounds  of  that  one  small  identity. 
From  what  Prince  Max  has  said  at  the  table  d'hote  at 
Bregenz,  it  was  clear  that  Mrs.  Keats  had  already  learned  I 
was  not  the  young  prince  of  the  House  of  Orleans ;  but,  in 
being  disabused  of  one  error,  she  seemed  to  have  fallen  into 
another ;  and  it  behoved  me  to  explain  that  I  was  not  a  rope- 
dancer  or  a  mountebank.     "She,  too,  shall  know  me  in  my 


346  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

Potts  nature,  "  said  I;  "she  also  shall  recognize  me  in  the 
'  majesty  of  myself.*  "  I  was  not  very  sure  of  what  that 
was,  but  found  it  in  Hegel. 

And  when  I  have  completed  this  task,  I  will  throw  myself 
like  a  waif  upon  the  waters  of  life.  I  will  be  that  which 
the  moment  or  the  event  shall  make  me,  —  neither  tram- 
melled by  the  past  nor  awed  by  the  future.  I  will  take  the 
world  as  the  drama  of  a  day.  Were  men  to  do  this,  what 
breadth  and  generosity  would  it  impart  to  them!  It  is  in 
self-seeking  and  advancement  that  we  narrow  our  faculties 
and  imprison  our  natures.  A  man  fancies  he  owns  a  palace 
and  a  demesne,  but  it  is  the  palace  that  owns  him,  obliges 
him  to  maintain  a  certain  state,  live  in  a  certain  style,  sur- 
rounded with  certain  observances,  not  one  of  which  may  be, 
perhaps,  native  to  him.  It  is  the  poor  man,  who  comes  to 
visit  and  gaze  on  his  splendors,  who  really  enjoys  them ;  he 
sees  them  without  one  detracting  influence,  —  not  to  say  that 
in  his  heart  are  no  corroding  jealousies  of  some  other  rich 
man,  who  has  a  finer  Claude,  or  a  grander  Rubens.  Instead, 
besides,  of  owning  one  palace  and  one  garden,  it  is  the 
universe  he  owns:  the  vast  savannah  is  his  race-ground; 
Niagara  his  own  private  cascade.  My  heart  bounded  with 
these  buoyant  fancies,  and  I  stepped  out  briskl}^  on  my 
road.  Now  that  I  had  made  this  vow  of  poverty  to  myself, 
I  felt  very  light-hearted  and  gay.  So  long  as  a  man  is 
struggling  for  place  and  pre-eminence  in  life,  how  can  he 
be  generous,  how  even  gracious?  *'Thou  shalt  not  covet 
thy  neighbor's  ox,"  says  the  commandment,  but  surely  it 
must  have  been  your  neighbor's  before  it  was  yours,  and  if 
you  have  striven  for  it,  it  is  likely  that  you  have  coveted  it. 
Now,  I  will  covet  nothing,  —  positively  nothing,  —  and  I 
will  see  if  in  this  noble  spirit  there  will  not  be  a  reward 
proportionately  ample  and  splendid. 

My  road  led  through  that  wild  and  somewhat  dreary  valley 
by  which  the  Upper  Rhine  descends,  fed  by  many  an  Alpine 
stream  and  torrent,  to  reach  the  fertile  plains  of  Germany. 
It  was  a  desolate  expanse  of  shingle,  with  here  and  there 
little  patches  of  oak  scrub,  or,  at  rare  intervals,  small 
enclosures  of  tillage,  though  how  tilled,  or  for  whom,  it  was 
hard  to  say,  since  not  a  trace  of  inhabitant  could  be  seen, 


ON  THE  EDGE  OF  A  TORRENT.  847 

far  or  wide.  Deep  fissures,  the  course  of  many  a  mountain 
stream,  cut  the  road  at  places,  and  through  these  the  foot 
traveller  had  to  pass  on  stepping-stones ;  while  wheel  car- 
riages, descending  into  the  chaos  of  rocks  and  stones,  fared 
even  worse,  and  incurred  serious  peril  to  spring  and  axle  in 
the  passage.  On  the  mountain-sides,  indeed,  some  chalets 
were  to  be  seen,  very  high  up,  and  scarcely  accessible,  but 
ever  surrounded  with  little  tracts  of  greener  verdure  and 
more  varied  foliage.  From  these  heights,  too,  I  could  hear 
the  melodious  ring  of  the  bells  worn  by  the  cattle,  —  sure 
signs  of  peasant  comfort.  *' Might  not  a  man  find  a  life  of 
simple  cares  and  few  sorrows,  up  yonder?"  asked  I,  as  I 
gazed  upward.  While  I  continued  to  look,  the  great  float- 
ing clouds  that  soared  on  the  mountain-top  began  to  mass 
and  to  mingle  together,  thickening  and  darkening  at  every 
moment,  and  then,  as  though  overweighted,  slowly  to 
descend,  shutting  out  chdlet  and  shady  copse  and  crag,  as 
they  fell,  on  their  way  to  the  plain  beneath.  It  was  a  griev- 
ous change  from  the  bright  picture  a  few  moments  back, 
and  not  the  less  disheartening,  that  the  heavily  charged 
mist  now  melted  into  rain,  that  soon  fell  in  torrents.  With 
not  a  rock  nor  a  shrub  to  shelter  under,  I  had  nothing  for 
it  but  to  trudge  onward  to  the  nearest  village,  wherever  that 
might  be.  How  speedily  the  slightest  touch  of  the  real  will 
ohase  away  the  fictitious  and  imaginary!  No  more  dreams 
nor  fancies  now,  as  wet  and  soaked  I  plodded  on,  my  knap- 
sack seeming  double  its  true  weight,  and  my  stick  appearing 
to  take  root  each  time  it  struck  the  ground.  The  fog,  too, 
was  so  dense  that  I  was  forced  to  feel  my  way  as  I  went. 
The  dull  roar  of  the  Rhine  was  the  only  sound  for  a  long 
time ;  but  this,  at  length,  became  broken  by  the  crashing 
noise  of  timber  carried  down  by  the  torrents,  and  the  louder 
din  of  the  torrents  themselves  as  they  came  tumbling  down 
the  mountain.  I  would  have  retraced  my  steps  to  Bregenz, 
but  that  I  knew  the  places  I  had  passed  dryshod  in  the 
morning  would  by  this  time  have  become  impassable  rivers. 
]^y  situation  was  a  dreary  one,  and  not  without  peril,  since 
there  was  no  saying  when  or  where  a  mountain  cataract 
might  not  burst  its  way  down  the  cliffs  and  sweep  clean 
across  the  road  towards  the  Rhine. 


348  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

Had  there  been  one  spot  to  offer  shelter,  even  the  poorest 
and  meanest,  I  would  gladly  have  taken  it,  and  made  up  my 
mind  to  await  better  weather;  but  there  was  not  a  bank, 
nor  even  a  bush  to  cower  under,  and  I  was  forced  to  trudge 
on.  It  seemed  to  me,  at  last,  that  I  must  have  been  walk- 
ing many  hours;  but  having  no  watch,  and  being  sur- 
rounded with  impenetrable  fog,  I  could  make  no  guess  of 
the  time,  when,  at  length,  a  louder  and  deeper  sound 
appeared  to  fill  the  air,  and  make  the  very  mist  vibrate  with 
its  din.  The  surging  sound  of  a  great  volume  of  water, 
sweeping  along  through  rocks  and  fallen  trees,  apprised  me 
that  I  was  nearing  a  torrent;  while  the  road  itself,  covered 
with  some  inches  of  water,  showed  that  the  stream  had 
already  risen  above  its  embankments.  There  was  real 
danger  in  this ;  light  carriages  —  the  great  lumbering  dili- 
gence itself  —  had  been  known  to  be  carried  away  by  these 
suddenly  swollen  streams,  and  I  began  seriously  to  fear 
disaster.  Wading  cautiously  onward,  I  reached  what  I 
judged  to  be  the  edge  of  the  torrent,  and  felt  with  my  stick 
that  the  water  was  here  borne  madly  onward,  and  at  consid- 
erable depth.  Though  through  the  fog  I  could  make  out  the 
opposite  bank,  and  see  that  the  stream  was  not  a  wide  one, 
I  plainly  perceived  that  the  current  was  far  too  powerful 
for  me  to  breast  without  assistance,  and  that  no  single  pas- 
senger could  attempt  it  with  safety.  I  may  have  stood 
half  an  hour  thus,  with  the  muddy  stream  surging  over  my 
ankles,  for  I  was  stunned  and  stupefied  by  the  danger,  when 
I  thought  I  saw  through  the  mist  two  gigantic  figures  loom- 
ing through  the  fog,  on  the  opposite  bank.  When  and  how 
they  had  come  there,  I  knew  not,  if  they  were  indeed 
there,  and  if  these  figures  were  not  mere  spectres  of  my 
imagination.  It  was  not  till  having  closed  ray  eyes,  and 
opening  them  again,  I  beheld  the  same  objects,  that  I  could 
fully  assure  myself  of  their  reality. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

I   AM   DRAGGED   AS   A    PRISONER  TO    FELDKIRCH. 

The  two  great  figures  I  had  seen  looming  through  the  fog 
while  standing  in  the  stream,  I  at  last  made  out  to  be  two 
horsemen,  who  seemed  in  search  of  some  safe  and  fordable 
part  of  the  stream  to  cross  over.  Their  apparent  caution 
was  a  lesson  by  which  I  determined  to  profit,  and  I  stood  a 
patient  observer  of  their  proceedings.  At  times  I  could 
catch  their  voices,  but  without  distinguishing  what  they 
said,  and  suddenly  I  heard  a  plunge,  and  saw  that  one  had 
dashed  boldly  into  the  flood,  and  was  quickly  followed  by 
the  other.  If  the  stream  did  not  reach  to  their  knees,  as 
they  sat,  it  was  yet  so  powerful  that  it  tested  all  the  strength 
of  the  horses  and  all  the  skill  of  the  riders  to  stem  it ;  and 
as  the  water  splashed  and  surged,  and  as  the  animals  plunged 
and  struggled,  I  scarcely  knew  whether  they  were  fated  to 
reach  the  bank,  or  be  carried  down  in  the  current.  As  they 
gained  about  the  middle  of  the  stream,  I  saw  that  they  were 
mounted  gendarmes,  heavy  men  with  heavy  equipments, 
favorable  enough  to  stem  the  tide,  but  hopelessly  incapable 
to  save  themselves  if  overturned.  ''  Go  back,  —  hold  in,  — 
go  back  !  the  water  is  far  deeper  here !  "  I  cried  out  at  the 
top  of  my  voice ;  but  either  not  hearing,  or  not  heeding  my 
warning,  on  they  came,  and,  as  T  spoke,  one  plunged  for- 
ward and  went  headlong  down  under  the  water,  but,  rising 
immediately,  his  horse  struck  boldly  out,  and,  after  a  few 
struggles,  gained  the  bank.  The  other,  more  fortunate,  had 
headed  up  the  stream,  and  reached  the  shore  without  diffi- 
culty. 

With  the  natural  prompting  of  a  man  towards  those  who 
had  just  overcome  a  great  peril,  I  hastened  to  say  how  glad 
I  felt  at  their  safety,  and  from  what  intense  fear  their  land- 


350  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

ing  had  rescued  me ;  when  one,  a  corporal,  as  his  cuff 
bespoke,  muttered  a  coarse  exclamation  of  impatience,  and 
something  like  a  malediction  on  the  service  that  exposed 
men  to  such  hazards,  and  at  the  same  instant  the  other 
dashed  boldly  up  the  bank,  and  with  a  bound  placed  his 
horse  at  my  side,  as  though  to  cut  off  my  retreat. 

"Who  are  you?"  cried  the  corporal  to  me,  in  a  stern 
voice. 

'*A  traveller,"  said  I,  trying  to  look  majestic  and 
indignant. 

"  So  I  see ;  and  of  what  nation?  " 

*'  Of  that  nation  which  no  man  insults  with  impunity." 

^'Russia?" 

''  No ;  certainly  not,  — England." 

*'  Whence  from  last?" 

*'From  Bregenz." 

**  And  from  Constance  by  Lindau?  "  asked  he  quickly,  as 
he  read  from  a  slip  of  paper  he  had  just  drawn  from  his 
belt. 

I  assented,  but  not  without  certain  misgivings,  as  I  saw 
so  much  was  known  as  to  my  movements. 

'*Now  for  your  passport.  Let  me  see  it,"  said  the  cor- 
poral again.  ''Just  so,"  said  he,  folding  it  up.  "Travel- 
ling on  foot,  and  marked  '  suspected.' " 

Though  he  muttered  these  words  to  his  companion,  I  per- 
ceived that  he  cared  very  little  for  my  having  overheard 
them. 

"  Suspected  of  what,  or  by  whom?  "  asked  I,  angrily. 

Instead  of  paying  any  attention  to  my  question,  the  two 
men  now  conversed  together  in  a  low  tone  and  confiden- 
tially. 

"  Come,"  said  T,  with  an  assumed  boldness,  "  if  you  have 
quite  done  with  that  passport  of  mine,  give  it  to  me,  and  let 
me  pursue  my  journey." 

So  eager  were  they  in  their  own  converse,  that  this  speech, 
too,  was  unheeded  ;  and  now,  grown  rasher  by  impunity  and 
impatience,  I  stepped  stoutly  forward,  and  attempted  to  take 
the  passport  from  the  soldier's  hand. 

"  Sturm  und  Gewitter !  "  swore  out  the  fellow,  while  he 
struck  me  sharply  on  the  wrist,  "  do  you  mean  to  try  force 


I  AM  DRAGGED  AS  A  PRISONER  TO  FELDKIRCH.     351 

with  us?  "  And  the  other  drew  his  sabre,  and,  flourishiDg  it 
over  his  head,  held  the  point  of  it  within  a  few  inches  of  my 
chest. 

I  cannot  imagine  whence  came  the  courage  that  now  filled 
my  heart,  for  I  know  I  am  not  naturally  brave,  but  I  felt 
for  an  instant  that  I  could  have  stormed  a  breach  ;  and,  with 
an  insulting  laugh,  I  said,  "  Oh,  of  course,  cut  me  down.  I 
am  unarmed  and  defenceless.  It  is  an  admirable  opportu- 
nity for  the  display  of  Austrian  chivalry." 

*' Bey'm  Henker!  It's  very  hard  not  to  slice  off  his 
Bar,"  said  the  soldier,  seeming  to  ask  leave  for  this  act  of 
valor. 

'*Get  out  your  cords,"  said  the  corporal;  "  we're  losing 
too  much  time  here." 

**  Am  I  a  prisoner,  then?"  asked  I,  in  some  trepidation. 

**I  suspect  you  are,  and  likely  to  be  for  some  time  to 
come,"  was  the  gruff  answer. 

''On  what  charge  —  what  is  alleged  against  me?"  cried 
I,  passionately. 

"  What  has  sent  many  a  better-looking  fellow  to  Spiel- 
berg," was  the  haughty  rejoinder. 

"  If  I  am  your  prisoner,"  said  I,  haughtily,  —  *'  and  I  warn 
you  at  once  of  your  peril  in  daring  to  arrest  a  British  subject 
travelling  peacefully  —  You  are  not  going  to  tie  my  hands  ! 
You  are  not  going  to  treat  me  as  a  felon?"  I  screamed 
out  these  words  in  a  voice  of  wildest  passion,  as  the  soldier^ 
who  had  dismounted  for  the  purpose,  was  now  proceeding  to 
tie  my  wrists  together  with  a  stout  cord,  and  in  a  manner 
that  displayed  very  little  concern  for  the  pain  he  occasioned 
me. 

As  escape  was  totally  out  of  the  question,  I  threw  myself 
upon  the  last  resource  of  the  injured.  I  fell  back  upon  elo- 
quence. I  really  wish  I  could  remember  even  faintly  the 
outline  of  my  discourse  ;  for  though  not  by  any  means  a 
fluent  Oerman,  the  indignation  that  makes  men  poets  con- 
verted me  into  a  greater  master  of  prose,  and  I  told  them  a 
vast  number  of  curious,  but  not  complimentary,  traits  of  the 
land  they  belonged  to.  I  gave,  too,  a  rapid  historical  sketch 
of  their  campaigns  against  the  French,  showing  how  they 
were  always  beaten,  the  only  novelty  being  whether  they  ran 


352  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

away  or  capitulated.  I  reminded  them  that  the  victory  over 
me  would  resound  through  Europe,  being  the  only  successful 
achievement  of  their  arms  for  the  last  half-century.  I  ex- 
pressed a  fervent  hope  that  the  corporal  would  be  decorated 
with  the  '^  Maria  Theresa,"  and  his  companion  obtain  the 
"valor  medal,"  for  what  they  had  done.  Pensions,  I 
hinted,  were  difficult  in  the  present  state  of  their  finances, 
but  rank  and  honor  certainly  ought  to  await  them.  I  don't 
know  at  what  exact  period  of  my  peroration  it  was  that  I 
was  literally  "  pulled  up,"  each  of  the  horsemen  holding  a 
line  fastened  to  my  wrists,  and  giving  me  a  drag  forward 
that  nearly  carried  me  off  my  feet,  and  flat  on  my  face.  I 
stumbled,  but  recovered  myself ;  and  now  saw  that,  bound 
as  I  was,  with  a  gendarme  on  each  side  of  me,  it  required  all 
the  activity  I  could  muster,  to  keep  my  legs. 

Another  whispered  conversation  here  took  place  across 
me,  and  I  thought  I  heard  the  words  Bregenz  and  Feldkirch 
interchanged,  giving  me  to  surmise  that  they  were  discussing 
to  which  place  they  should  repair.  My  faint  hope  of  return- 
ing to  the  former  town  was,  however,  soon  extinguished,  as 
the  corporal,  turning  to  me,  said,  ''  Our  orders  are  to  bring 
you  alive  to  headquarters.  We  '11  do  our  best ;  but  if,  in 
crossing  these  torrents,  you  prefer  to  be  drowned,  it 's  no 
fault  of  ours." 

"Do  you  mean  by  that,"  cried  I,  "that  I  am  to  be 
dragged  through  the  water  in  this  fashion?" 

"  I  mean  that  you  are  to  come  along  as  best  you  maj\" 

"It  is  all  worthy  of  you,  quite  worthy ! "  screamed  I,  in 
a  voice  of  wildest  rage.  "  You  reserve  all  your  bravery  for 
those  who  cannot  resist  you,  —  and  you  are  right,  for  they 
are  your  only  successes.  The  Turks  beat  you  "  —  here  they 
chucked  me  close  up,  and  dashed  into  the  stream.  "  The 
Pi-ussians  beat  you !  "  I  was  now  up  to  my  waist  in  water. 
"  The  Swiss  beat  you!  "  Down  I  went  over  head  and  ears. 
"The  French  always  —  thrashed  you"  —  down  again  — 
"  at  Ulm  —  Auster  —  litz  —  Aspern  "  —  nearly  suffocated,  I 
yelled  out,  "  Wagram  !  "  —  and  down  I  went,  never  to  know 
any  further  consciousness  till  I  felt  myself  lying  on  the 
soaked  and  muddy  road,  and  heard  a  gruff  voice  saying, 
*'  Come  along  —  we  don't  intend  to  pass  the  night  here  !  " 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

THE   ACT   OF   ACCUSATION. 

Benumbed,  bedraggled,  and  bewildered,  I  entered  Feldkirch 
late  at  night,  my  wrists  cut  with  the  cords,  my  clothes  torn 
by  frequent  falls,  my  limbs  aching  with  bruises,  and  my  wet 
rags  chafing  my  skin.  No  wonder  was  it  that  I  was  at  once 
consigned  from  the  charge  of  a  jailer  to  the  care  of  a  doctor, 
and  ere  the  day  broke  I  was  in  a  raging  fever. 

I  would  not,  if  I  could,  preserve  any  memory  of  that  grie- 
vous interval.  Happily  for  me,  no  clear  traces  remain  on  my 
mind,  —  pangs  of  suffering  are  so  mingled  with  little  details 
of  the  locality,  faces,  words,  ludicrous  images  of  a  wander- 
ing intellect,  long  hours  of  silent  brooding,  sound  of  church 
bells,  and  such  other  tokens  as  cross  the  lives  of  busy  men  in 
the  daily  walk  of  life,  all  came  and  went  within  my  brain, 
and  still  I  lay  there  in  fever. 

In  my  first  return  of  consciousness,  I  perceived  I  was  the 
sole  occupant  of  a  long  arched  gallery,  with  a  number  of 
beds  arranged  along  each  side  of  it.  In  their  uniform  sim- 
plicity, and  the  severe  air  of  the  few  articles  of  furniture,  my 
old  experiences  at  once  recalled  the  hospital;  not  that  I 
arrived  at  this  conclusion  without  much  labor  and  a  consider- 
able mental  effort.  It  was  a  short  journey,  to  be  sure,  but  I 
was  walking  with  sprained  ankles.  It  was,  however,  a  great 
joy  and  a  great  triumpli  to  me  to  accomplish  even  this  much. 
It  was  the  recognition  to  myself  that  I  was  once  more  on 
the  road  to  health,  and  again  to  feel  the  sympathies  that 
make  a  brotherhood  of  this  life  of  ours ;  and  so  happy  was 
I  with  the  prospect,  that  when  I  went  to  sleep  at  night  my 
last  thought  was  of  the  pleasure  that  morning  would  bring 
me.     And  I  was  not  disappointed ;  the  next  day,  and  the 

23 


354  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

next,  and  several  more  that  followed,  were  all  passed  in  a 
calm  and  tranquil  enjoyment.  Looking  back  upon  this 
period,  I  have  often  been  disposed  to  imagine  that  when  we 
lie  in  the  convalescence  that  follows  some  severe  illness,  with 
no  demands  upon  our  bodily  strength,  no  call  made  upon 
our  muscular  energies,  the  very  activity  of  digestion  not 
evoked,  as  our  nourishment  is  of  the  simplest  and  lightest, 
our  brain  must  of  necessity  exercise  its  functions  more 
freely,  untrammelled  by  passing  cares  or  the  worries  inci- 
dent to  daily  life,  and  that  at  such  times  our  intellect  has 
probably  a  more  uncontested  action  than  at  any  other  period 
of  our  existence.  I  do  not  want  to  pursue  my  theory,  or 
endeavor  to  sustain  it ;  my  reader  has  here  enough  to  induce 
him  to  join  his  experience  to  my  own,  or  reject  the  notion 
altogether. 

I  lay  thus,  not  impatiently,  for  above  a  fortnight.  I 
regained  strength  very  slowly;  the  least  effort  or  exertion 
was  sure  to  overcome  me.  But  I  wished  for  none ;  and  as 
I  lay  there,  gazing  for  whole  days  long  at  a  great  coat-of- 
arms  over  the  end  of  the  gallery,  where  a  huge  double-headed 
eagle  seemed  to  me  screaming  in  the  agony  of  strangulation, 
but  yet  never  to  be  choked  outright,  I  revelled  in  many  a 
strange  rambling  as  to  the  fate  of  the  land  of  which  it  was 
the  emblem  and  the  shield.  Doubtless  some  remnant  of  my 
passionate  assault  on  Austria  lingered  in  my  brain,  and 
gave  this  turn  to  its  operations. 

My  nurse  was  one  of  that  sisterhood  whose  charities  call 
down  many  a  blessing  on  the  Church  that  organizes  their 
benevolences.  She  was  what  is  called  a  graue  S chuj ester ; 
and  of  a  truth  she  seemed  the  incarnation  of  grayness.  It 
was  not  her  dress  alone,  but  her  face  and  hands,  her  noise- 
less gait,  her  undemonstrative  stare,  her  half-husky  whisper, 
and  her  monotonous  ways,  had  all  a  sort  of  pervading  gray- 
ness that  enveloped  her,  just  as  a  cloud  mist  wraps  a  land- 
scape. There  was,  besides,  a  kind  of  fog-like  indistinctness, 
in  her  few  and  muttered  words  that  made  a  fitting  atmos- 
phere of  drowsy  uniformity  for  the  sick-room. 

Her  first  care,  on  my  recovery,  was  to  supply  me  with  a 
number  of  little  religious  books,  —  lives  of  saints  and  mar- 
tyrs, accounts  of  miracles,  and  narratives  of  holy  pilgrim- 


THE  ACT  OF  ACCUSATION.  855 

ages,  —  and  I  devoured  them  with  all  the  zest  of  a  devotee. 
They  seemed  to  supply  the  very  excitement  my  mind  craved 
for,  and  the  good  soul  little  suspected  how  much  more  she 
was  ministering  to  a  love  for  the  marvellous  than  to  a  spirit 
of  piety.  In  the  "Flowers  of  St.  Francis,"  for  instance,  I 
found  an  adventure-seeker  after  my  own  heart.  To  be 
sure,  his  search  was  after  sinners  in  need  of  a  helping  hand 
to  rescue  them;  but  as  his  contests  with  Satan  were  described 
as  stand-up  encounters,  with  very  hard  knocks  on  each  side, 
they  were  just  as  exciting  combats  to  read  of,  as  any  I  had 
ever  perused  in  stories  of  chivalry. 

Mistaking  my  zest  for  these  readings  for  something  far 
more  praiseworthy,  ''the  gray  sister"  enjoined  me  very  seri- 
ously to  turn  from  the  evil  advisers  I  had  formerly  con- 
sorted with,  and  frequent  the  society  of  better-minded  and 
wiser  men.  Out  of  these  counsels,  dark  and  dim  at  first, 
but  gradually  growing  clearer,  I  learned  that  I  was  regarded 
as  a  member  of  some  terrible  secret  society,  banded 
together  for  the  direst  and  blackest  of  objects ;  the  subver- 
sion of  thrones,  overthrow  of  dynasties,  and  assassination 
of  sovereigns  being  all  labors  of  love  to  us.  She  had  a  full 
catalogue  of  my  colleagues,  from  Sand,  who  killed  Kotzebue, 
to  Orsini,  and  seemed  thoroughly  persuaded  that  I  was  a 
very  advanced  member  of  the  order.  It  was  only  after  a 
long  time,  and  with  great  address  on  my  part,  that  I  obtained 
these  revelations  from  her,  and  she  owned  that  nothing  but 
witnessing  how  the  holy  studies  had  influenced  me  would 
ever  have  induced  her  to  make  these  avowals.  As  my  con- 
valescence progressed,  and  I  was  able  to  sit  up  for  an  hour 
or  so  in  the  day,  she  told  me  that  I  might  very  soon  expect 
a  visit  from  the  Staats  Procurator,  a  kind  of  district 
attorney-general,  to  examine  me.  So  little  able  was  I  to 
carry  my  mind  back  to  the  bygone  events  of  my  life,  that 
I  heard  this  as  a  sort  of  vague  hope  that  the  inquiry  would 
strike  out  some  clew  by  which  I  could  connect  myself  with 
the  past,  for  I  was  sorely  puzzled  to  learn  what  and  who  I 
had  been  before  I  came  there.  Was  I  a  prosecutor  or  was 
I  a  prisoner?  Never  was  a  knotty  point  more  patiently 
investigated,  but,  alas!  most  hopelessly.  The  intense  in- 
terest of  the  inquiry,  however,  served  totally  to  withdraw 


356  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

me  from  my  previous  readings,  and  *'the  gray  sister"  was 
shocked  to  see  the  mark  in  my  book  remain  for  days  long 
unchanged.  She  took  courage  at  length  to  address  me  on 
the  subject,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  ask  if  Satan  himself 
had  not  taken  occasional  opportunity  of  her  absence  to 
come  and  sit  beside  my  bed  ?  I  eagerly  caught  at  the  sug- 
gestion, and  said  it  was  as  she  suspected:  that  he  never 
gave  me  a  moment's  peace,  now  torturing  me  with  menaces, 
now  asking  for  explanations,  how  this  could  be  reconciled 
with  that,  and  why  such  a  thing  should  not  have  prevented 
such  another? 

Instead  of  expressing  any  astonishment  at  my  confession, 
she  appeared  to  regard  it  as  one  of  the  most  ordinary  inci- 
dents, and  referred  me  to  my  books,  and  especially  to  St. 
Francis,  to  see  that  these  were  usual  and  every-day  snares 
in  use.  She  went  further,  and  in  her  zeal  actually  showed 
a  sort  of  contempt  for  the  Evil  One  in  his  intellectual 
capacity  that  startled  me;  showing  how  St.  Jude  always 
got  the  better  of  him,  and  that  he  was  a  mere  child  when 
opposed  by  the  craft  of  St.  Anthony  of  Pavia. 

"It  is  the  truth,"  said  she,  "always  conquers  him.  When- 
ever, by  any  chance,  he  can  catch  you  concealing  or  evading, 
trying  to  make  out  reasons  that  are  inconsistent,  or  affecting 
intentions  that  you  had  not,  then  he  is  your  master." 

There  was  such  an  air  of  matter-of  fact  about  all  she  said, 
that  when  —  our  first  conversation  on  this  theme  over  —  she 
left  the  room,  a  cold  sweat  broke  over  me  at  the  thought  that 
my  next  visitor  would  be  the  "Lebendige  Satan"  himself. 

It  had  come  to  this :  that  I  had  furnished  my  own  mind 
with  such  a  subject  of  terror  that  I  could  not  endure  to  be 
alone,  and  lay  there  trembling  at  every  noise,  and  shrink- 
ing at  every  shadow  that  crossed  the  floor.  Many  and  many 
times,  as  the  dupe  of  my  own  deceivings,  did  I  find  myself 
talking  aloud  in  self-defence,  averring  that  I  wanted  to  be 
good  and  honest  and  faithful,  and  that  whenever  I  lapsed 
from  the  right  path,  it  was  in  moments  of  erring  reason, 
sure  to  be  followed  after  by  sincere  repentance. 

It  was  after  an  access  of  this  kind  "the  gray  sister  "  found 
me  one  morning,  bathed  in  cold  perspiration,  my  eyes  fixed, 
my  lips  livid,  and  my  fingers  fast  knotted  together. 


THE  ACT  OF  ACCUSATION.  857 

'*I  see,"  said  she,  "he  has  given  you  a  severe  turn  of  it 
to-day.     What  was  the  temptation  ?  " 

For  a  long  while  I  refused  to  answer ;  I  was  weak  as  well 
as  irritable,  and  I  desired  peace;  but  she  persisted,  and 
pressed  hard  to  know  what  subject  we  had  been  discussing 
together. 

"I'll  tell  you,  then,"  said  I,  fiercely,  for  a  sudden  thought, 
prompted  perhaps  by  a  sense  of  anger,  flashed  across  me; 
*'he  has  just  told  me  that  you  are  his  sister." 

She  screamed  out  wildly,  and  rushing  to  the  end  of  the 
gallery,  threw  herself  at  the  foot  of  a  little  altar. 

Satisfied  with  my  vengeance,  I  lay  back,  and  said  no 
more.  I  may  have  dropped  into  a  half-slumber  afterwards, 
for  I  remember  nothing  till,  just  as  evening  began  to  fall, 
one  of  the  servants  came  up  and  placed  a  table  and  two 
chairs  beside  my  bed,  with  writing-materials  and  a  large 
book,  and  shortly  after,  two  men  dressed  in  black,  and  with 
square  black  caps  on  their  heads,  took  their  places  at  the 
table,  and  conversed  together  in  low  whispers. 

Resolving  to  treat  them  with  a  show  of  complete  indiffer- 
ence, I  turned  away  and  pretended  to  go  to  sleep. 

''The  Herr  Staats  Procurator  Schlassel  has  come  to  read 
the  act  of  accusation,"  said  the  shorter  man,  who  seemed  a 
subordinate:  "take  care  that  you  pay  proper  respect  to  the 
law  and  the  authorities." 

"Let  him  read  away,"  said  I,  with  a  wave  of  my  hand; 
"I  will  listen." 

In  a  low,  sing-song,  dreary  tone,  he  began  to  recite  the 
titles  and  dignities  of  the  Emperor.  I  listened  for  a  while ; 
but  as  he  got  down  to  the  Banat  and  Herzegovine,  sleep 
overcame  me,  and  I  dozed  away,  waking  up  to  hear  him 
detailing  what  seemed  his  own  greatness,  how  he  was 
"  Ober  "  this,  and  "  Unter  "  that,  till  I  fairly  lost  myself  in 
the  maze  of  his  description.  Judging  from  the  monotonous, 
business-like  persistence  of  his  manner,  that  he  had  a  long 
road  before  him,  I  wrapped  myself  comfortably  in  the  bed- 
clothas,  closed  my  eyes,  and  soon  slept. 

There  were  two  candles  burning  on  the  table  when  I  next 
opened  my  eyes,  and  my  friend  the  procurator  was  reading 
away  as  before.     I  tried  to  interest  myself  for  a  second  or 


358  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

two ;  I  rubbed  my  eyes,  and  endeavored  to  be  wakeful ;  but 
I  could  not,  and  was  fast  settling  down  into  my  former 
state,  when  certain  words  struck  on  my  ear  and  aroused  me  : 

"The  well-born  Herr  von  Rigges  further  denounces  the 
prisoner  Harpar  —  " 

"Read  that  again,"  cried  I,  aloud,  "for  I  cannot  clearly 
follow  what  you  say." 

' '  *  The  well-born  Herr  von  Rigges, ' "  repeated  he,  " '  further 
denounces  the  prisoner  Harpar  as  one  of  a  sect  banded 
together  for  the  darkest  purposes  of  revolution ! '  " 

"Forgive  my  importunity,  Herr  Procurator,"  said  I,  in 
my  most  insinuating  tone,  "but  in  compassion  for  the 
weakness  of  faculties  sorely  tried  by  fever,  will  you  tell  me 
who  is  Rigges  ?  " 

"Who  is  Rigges?  Is  that  your  question?"  said  he, 
slowly. 

"Yes,  sir;  that  was  my  question." 

He  turned  over  several  pages  of  his  voluminous  report, 
and  proceeded  to  search  for  the  passage  he  wanted. 

"Here  it  is,"  said  he,  at  last;  and  he  read  out:  "  '  The 
so-called  Rigges,  being  a  well-born  and  not-the-less-from- 
a-mercantile- object -engaging  pursuit  highly-placed  and 
much-honored  subject  of  her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  England, 
of  the  age  of  forty-two  years  and  eight  months,  unmarried, 
and  professing  the  Protestant  religion.'    Is  that  sufficient?  " 

"Quite  so;  and  now,  will  you,  with  equal  urbanity,  inform 
me  who  is  Harpar?  " 

"Who  is  Harpar?  Who  is  Harpar?  You  surely  do  not 
ask  me  that?" 

"I  do;  such  is  my  question." 

"I  must  confess  that  you  surprise  me.  You  ask  me  for 
information  about  yourself !  " 

"Oh,  indeed!     So  that  I  am  Harpar?" 

"You  can,  of  course,  deny  it.  We  are  in  a  measure  pre- 
pared for  that.  The  proofs  of  your  identity  will  be,  how- 
ever, forthcoming;  not  to  add  that  it  will  be  difficult  to 
disprove  the  offence." 

"Ha,  the  offence!  I'm  really  curious  about  that.  What 
18  the  offence  with  which  I  am  charged  ?  " 

"What  I  have  been  reading  these  two   hours.     What  I 


THE  ACT  OF  ACCUSATION.  859 

have  recited  with  all  the  clearness,  brevity,  and  perspicuity 
that  characterize  our  imperial  and  royal  legislation,  making 
our  code  at  once  the  envy  and  admiration  of  all  Europe." 

"I  'm  sure  of  that.     But  what  have  I  done?  " 

"With  what  for  a  dulness-charged  and  much-beclouded 
intellect  are  you  afflicted,"  cried  he,  ''not  to  have  followed 
the  greatly-by-circumstances-corroborated,  and  in-various- 
ways-by-proofs-brought-home  narrative  that  I  have  already 
read  out." 

"I  have  not  heard  one  word  of  it! " 

"What  a  deplorable  and  all-the-more-theref ore-hopeless 
intelligence  is  yours!  I  will  begin  it  once  more."  And 
with  a  heavy  sigh  he  turned  over  the  first  pages  of  his 
manuscript. 

"Nay,  Herr  Procurator,"  interposed  I,  hastily.  "I  have 
the  less  claim  to  exact  this  sacrifice  on  your  part,  that  even 
when  you  have  rendered  it,  it  will  be  all  fruitless  and  un- 
profitable. I  am  just  recovering  from  a  severe  illness.  I 
am,  as  you  have  very  acutely  remarked,  a  man  of  very  nar- 
row and  limited  faculties  in  my  best  of  moments,  and  I  am 
now  still  lower  in  the  scale  of  intelligence.  Were  you  to 
read  that  lucid  document  till  we  were  both  gray-headed,  it 
would  leave  me  just  as  uninformed  as  to  imputed  crime  as 
I  now  am." 

"I  perceive,"  said  he,  gravely.  Then,  turning  to  his 
<jlerk,  he  bade  him  write  down,  "  *And  the  so-called  Harpar, 
having  duly  heard  and  with  decorously-lent  attention  lis- 
tened to  the  foregoing  act,  did  thereupon  enter  his  plea  of 
mental  incapacity  and  derangement.'  " 

"Nay,  Herr  Procurator,  I  would  simply  record  that,  how- 
ever open  to  follow  some  plain  narrative,  the  forms  and 
subtleties  of  a  legal  document  only  bewilder  me." 

"What  for  an  ingeniously-worded  and  with-artifice- 
cunningly-conceived  excuse  have  we  here?"  exclaimed  he, 
indignantly.  "Is  it  from  England,  with  her  seventeen  hun- 
dred and  odd  volumes  of  an  incomplete  code,  that  the  Impe- 
rial and  Royal  Government  is  to  learn  legislation?  You 
are  charged  with  offences  that  are  known  to  every  state  of 
civilization:  highway  assault  and  molestation;  attack  with 
arms  and  deadly  implements,  stimulated  by  base  and  long- 


860  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

heretofore  and  with-bitterness-imagined  plans  of  vengeance 
on  your  countryman  and  former  associate,  the  so-named 
Rigges.  From  him,  too,  proceeds  the  information  as  to 
your  political  character,  and  the  ever-to-be  deplored  and 
only-with-blood-expiated  error  of  republicanism  by  which 
you  are  actuated.  This  brief,  but  not-the-less-on-that- 
account  lucid  exposition,  it  is  my  duty  first  to  read  out,  and 
then  leave  with  you.  With  all  your  from-a-wrong- impulse- 
proceeding  and  a-spirit-of-opposition-suggested  objections, 
I  have  no  wish  nor  duty  to  meddle.  The  benign  and  ever 
paternal  rule  under  which  we  live  gives  even  to  the  most- 
with-accusation-surrounded,  and  with-strong-presumption- 
implicated  prisoner,  every  facility  of  defence.  Having 
read  and  matured  this  indictment,  you  will,  after  a  week, 
make  choice  of  an  advocate.'* 

"Am  I  to  be  confronted  with  my  accuser?  " 

*'I  sincerely  hope  that  the  indecent  spectacle  of  Insulting 
attack  and  offensive  rejoinder  thus  suggested  is  unknown  to 
the  administration  of  our  law." 

"How,  then,  can  you  be  certain  that  I  am  the  man  he 
accuses  of  having  molested  him  ?  " 

"You  are  not  here  to  assail,  nor  I  to  defend,  the  with- 
ages-consolidated  and  by-much-tact-accumulated  wisdom  of 
our  Imperial  and  Royal  Code." 

"Might  he  not  say,  when  he  saw  me,  *  I  never  set  eyes  on 
this  man  before  '  ?  " 

He  turned  again  to  his  clerk,  and  dictated  something 
of  which  I  could  but  catch  the  concluding  words,  "And 
thereby  imputing  perjury  to  the  so-called  Rigges." 

It  was  all  I  could  do  to  repress  an  outburst  of  anger  at 
this  unjustifiable  system  of  inference,  but  I  did  restrain 
myself,  and  merely  said,  "I  impute  nothing,  Herr  Procu- 
rator; I  simply  suggest  a  possible  case,  that  everything 
suffered  by  Rigges  was  inflicted  by  some  other  than  I." 

"If  you  had  accomplices,  name  them,"  said  he,  solemnly. 

This  overcame  all  my  prudent  resolves.  I  was  nowise 
prepared  for  such  a  perversity  of  misconception,  and,  losing 
all  patience  and  all  respect  for  his  authority,  I  burst  out 
into  a  most  intemperate  attack  on  Austria,  her  code,  her 
system,  her  ignorant  indifference  to  all  European  enlighten- 


THE  ACT  OF  ACCUSATION.  361 

ment,  her  bigoted  adherence  to  forms  either  unmeaning  or 
pernicious,  winding  up  all  with  a  pleasant  prediction  that  in 
a  few  short  years  the  world  would  have  seen  the  last  of  this 
stolid  and  unteachable  empire. 

Instead  of  deigning  a  reply,  he  merely  bent  down  to  the 
table,  and  I  saw  by  the  movement  of  his  lips,  and  the  rapid 
course  of  the  clerk's  pen,  that  my  statement  was  being 
reduced  to  writing. 

"When  you  have  completed  that,'*  said  I,  gravely,  *'I 
have  some  further  observations  to  record." 

"In  a  moment,  —  in  a  moment,"  patiently  responded  the 
procurator;  "we  have  only  got  to  '  the  besotted  stupidity  of 
her  pretentious  officials. '  " 

The  calm  quietude  of  his  manner,  as  he  said  this,  threw 
me  into  a  fit  of  laughter  which  lasted  several  minutes. 

"There,  there,"  said  I,  *'that  will  do;  I  will  keep  the  re- 
mainder of  my  remarks  for  another  time  and  place." 

"'Reserving  to  himself,'"  dictated  he,  "'the  right  of 
uttering  still  more  bitter  and  untruthful  comments  on  a 
future  occasion.'"  And  the  clerk  wrote  the  words  as  he 
spoke  them. 

"You  will  sigu  this  here,"  said  he,  presenting  me  with 
the  pen. 

"Nothing  of  the  kind,  Herr  Procurator.  I  will  not  lend 
myself  to  any,  even  the  most  ordinary,  form  of  your  stupid 
system." 

"'And  refuses  to  sign  the  foregoing,'"  dictated  he,  in 
the  same  unmoved  voice.  This  done,  he  arose,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  draw  on  his  gloves.  "The  act  of  allegation  I  now 
commit  to  your  hands,"  said  he,  calmly,  "and  you  will  have 
a  week  to  reflect  upon  the  course  you  desire  to  adopt." 

"One  question  before  you  go:  Is  the  person  called  Rigges 
here  at  this  moment,  and  can  I  see  him  ?  " 

He  consulted  for  a  few  seconds  with  his  subordinate,  and 
then  replied,  "These  questions  we  are  of  opinion  are  irrele- 
vant to  the  defence,  and  need  not  be  answered." 

"I  only  ask  you,  as  a  favor,  Herr  Procurator,"  said  I. 

"The  law  recognizes  no  favors,  nor  accepts  courtesies." 

"Does  it  also  reject  common  sense?  —  is  it  deaf  to  all 
intelligence?  —  is  it  indifferent  to  every  appeal  to  reason? 
• —  is  it  dead  to  —  " 


362  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

But  he  would  not  wait  for  more,  and  having  saluted  me 
thrice  profoundly,  retired  from  the  gallery  and  left  me  alone 
with  my  indignation. 

The  great  pile  of  paper  still  lay  on  the  table  next  me,  and 
in  my  anger  I  hurled  it  from  me  to  the  middle  of  the  room, 
venting  I  know  not  what  passionate  wrath  at  the  same  time 
on  everything  German.  "This  the  land  of  primitive  sim- 
plicity and  patriarchal  virtues,  forsooth!  This  the  country 
of  elevated  tastes  and  generous  instincts!  Why,  it  is  all 
Bureau  and  Barrack !  "  I  went  on  for  a  long  time  in  this 
strain,  and  I  felt  the  better  for  it.  The  operative  surgeons 
tell  us  that  no  men  recover  so  certainly  or  so  speedily  after 
great  operations  as  the  fellows  who  scream  out  and  make  a 
terrible  uproar.  It  is  your  patient,  self-controlling  creature 
who  sinks  under  the  suffering  he  will  not  confess ;  and  I  am 
confident  that  it  is  a  wise  practice  to  blow  off  the  steam  of 
one's  indignation,  and  say  all  the  most  bitter  things  one  can 
think  of  in  moments  of  disappointment,  and,  so  to  say,  pre- 
pare the  chambers  of  your  mind  for  the  reception  of  better 
company. 

After  a  while  I  got  up,  gathered  the  papers  together,  and 
prepared  to  read  them.  Legal  amplifications  and  circum- 
locutions are  of  all  lands  and  peoples ;  but  for  the  triumph 
of  this  diffusiveness  commend  me  to  the  Germans.  To 
such  an  extent  was  this  the  case,  that  I  reached  the  eighth 
page  of  the  precious  paper  before  I  got  finally  out  of  the 
titular  description  of  the  vice-governor  in  whose  district  the 
event  was  laid.  Armed,  however,  with  heroic  resolution,  I 
persevered,  and  read  on  through  the  entire  night,  —  I  will 
not  say  without  occasional  refreshers  in  the  shape  of  short 
naps;  but  the  day  was  already  breaking  when  I  turned  over 
the  last  page,  and  read  the  concluding  little  blessing  on  the 
Emperor,  under  whose  benign  reign  all  the  good  was  encour- 
aged, all  evil  punished,  and  the  Hoch-gelehrter  —  Hoch 
wohl-geborner  Herr  der  Hofrath,  Ober  Procurators-fiscal- 
Secretar,  charged  with  the  due  execution  of  the  present 
decree. 

In  the  language  of  precis  writing,  the  event  might  be 
stated  thus:  "A  certain  Englishman  named  Rigges,  travel- 
ling by  post,  arrived  at  the  torrent  of  Dornbirn  a  short  time 


THE  ACT  OF  ACCUSATION.  363 

before  noon,  and  while  waiting  there  for  the  arrival  of  some 
peasants  to  accompany  his  carriage  through  the  stream,  was 
joined  by  a  foot-traveller,  by  whom  he  was  speedily  recog- 
nized. Whatever  the  nature  of  the  relations  previously 
subsisting  between  them,  —  and  it  may  be  presumed  they 
were  not  of  the  most  amiable,  —  no  sooner  had  they  ex- 
changed glances  than  they  engaged  in  deadly  conflict. 
Rigges  was  well  armed ;  the  stranger  had  no  weapon  what- 
ever, but  was  a  man  of  surpassing  strength,  for  he  tore  the 
door  of  the  carriage  from  its  hinges,  and  dragged  Rigges 
out  upon  the  road  before  the  other  could  offer  any  resist- 
ance. The  postilion,  who  had  gone  to  summon  the  peas- 
ants, was  speedily  recalled  by  the  report  of  firearms ;  three 
shots  were  fired  in  rapid  succession,  and  when  he  reached 
the  spot  it  was  to  see  two  men  struggling  violently  in  the 
torrent,  the  stranger  dragging  Rigges  with  all  his  might 
towards  the  middle  of  the  stream,  and  the  other  screaming 
wildly  for  succor.  The  conflict  was  a  terrible  one,  for  the 
foot-traveller  seemed  determined  on  self-destruction,  if  he 
could  only  involve  the  other  in  his  own  fate.  At  last  Rigges' 
strength  gave  way,  and  the  other  threw  himself  upon  him, 
and  they  both  went  down  beneath  the  water. 

"The  stranger  emerged  in  an  instant,  but  one  of  the  peas- 
ants on  the  bank  struck  him  a  violent  blow  with  his  ash  pole, 
and  he  fell  back  into  the  stream.  Meanwhile  the  others 
had  rescued  Rigges,  who  lay  panting,  but  unconscious,  on 
the  ground.  They  were  yet  ministering  to  his  recovery, 
when  they  heard  a  wild  shout  of  derisive  triumph,  and  now 
saw  that  the  other,  though  carried  away  by  the  torrent,  had 
gained  a  small  shingly  bank  in  the  middle  of  the  Rhine, 
and  was  waving  his  hat  in  mockery  of  them.  They  were  too 
much  occupied  with  the  care  of  the  wounded  man,  however, 
to  bestow  more  attention  on  him.  One  of  Rigges'  arms  was 
badly  fractured,  and  his  jaw  also  broken,  while  he  com- 
plained still  more  of  the  pain  of  some  internal  injuries;  so 
severe,  indeed,  were  his  sufferings,  that  he  had  to  be  carried 
on  a  litter  to  Feldkirch.  His  first  care  on  arriving  was  to 
denounce  the  assailant,  whose  name  he  gave  as  Harpar, 
declaring  him  to  be  a  most  notorious  member  of  a  '  Rouge ' 
society,  and  one  whose  capture  was  an  object  of  European 


364  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

interest.  In  fact,  Rigges  went  so  far  as  to  pretend  that  he 
had  himself  perilled  life  in  the  attempt  to  secure  him. 

"Detachments  of  mounted  gendarmes  were  immediately 
sent  off  in  pursuit,  the  order  being  to  arrest  any  foot- 
traveller  whose  suspicious  appearance  might  challenge 
scrutiny." 

It  is  needless  to  say  how  much  I  appeared  to  fulfil  the 
signs  they  sought  for,  not  to  add  that  the  intemperance  of 
my  language,  when  captured,  was  in  itself  sufficient  to 
establish  a  grave  charge  against  me.  It  is  true,  there  was 
in  the  act  of  allegation  a  lengthened  description  of  me,  with 
which  my  own  appearance  but  ill  corresponded.  I  was  de- 
scribed as  of  middle  age,  of  a  strong  frame  and  muscular 
habit,  and  with  an  expression  that  denoted  energy  and 
fierceness.  How  much  of  that  vigor  must  they  imagine  had 
been  washed  away  by  the  torrent,  to  leave  me  the  poor 
helpless-looking  thing  I  now  appeared! 

I  know  it  is  a  very  weak  confession, —  I  feel  as  I  make  it 
how  damaging  to  my  character  is  the  acknowledgment,  and 
how  seriously  I  compromise  myself  in  my  reader's  estima- 
tion; but  I  cannot  help  owning  that  I  felt  very  proud  to 
be  thought  so  wicked,  to  be  classed  with  those  Brutuses  of 
modern  history,  who  were  scattering  explosive  shells  like 
bonbons,  and  throwing  grenades  broadcast  like  "confetti" 
in  a  carnival.  I  fancied  how  that  miserable  Staats  Procura- 
tor must  have  trembled  in  his  inmost  heart  as  he  sat  there 
in  close  proximity  with  such  an  infuriate  desperado  as  I 
was.  I  hoped  that  every  look,  every  gesture,  every  word 
of  mine,  struck  terror  into  his  abject  soul.  It  must  also 
unquestionably  do  them  good,  these  besotted,  self-satisfied, 
narrow-minded  Germans,  to  learn  how  an  Englishman,  a 
born  Briton,  regards  their  miserable  system  of  government, 
and  that  poor  and  meagre  phantasm  they  call  their  "civili- 
zation." Well,  they  have  had  their  opportunity  now,  and 
I  hope  they  will  make  much  of  it. 

As  I  pondered  over  the  late  incident,  as  recorded  in  the 
allegation,  I  remembered  the  name  of  Rigges  as  that  of  the 
man  Harpar  mentioned  as  having  "run  "  or  escaped  with 
their  joint  finances,  and  had  very  little  difficulty  in  filling 
up  the  probable  circumstances  of  their  rencontre.     It  was 


THE  ACT  OF   ACCUSATION.  365 

easy  to  see  how  Rigges,  travelling  "extra-post,"  with  all 
the  appearance  of  wealth  and  station,  could  impute  to 
the  poor  wayfarer  any  criminality  he  pleased.  Cunningly 
enough,  too,  he  had  hit  upon  the  precise  imputation  which 
was  sure  to  enlist  Austrian  sympathies  in  the  pursuit,  and 
calling  him  a  "Socialist  and  a  Rouge"  was  almost  sealing 
his  fate  at  once.  How  glad  I  felt  that  the  poor  fellow  had 
escaped,  even  though  it  cost  me  all  the  penalty  of  personating 
him;  yes,  1  really  was  generous  enough  for  that  sentiment, 
though  1  perceive  that  my  reader  smiles  incredulously  as  I 
declare  it.  "No,  no,"  mutters  he,  "the  arrant  snob  must 
not  try  to  impose  upon  us  in  that  fashion.  He  was  trem- 
bling to  the  very  marrow  of  his  bones,  and  nothing  was 
further  from  his  thoughts  than  self-sacritice  or  devotion." 
I  know  your  opinion  of  me  takes  this  lively  shape;  I  feel  it, 
and  I  shrink  under  it;  but  I  know,  besides,  that  I  owe  all 
this  depreciating  estimate  of  me  to  nothing  so  much  as 
my  own  frankness  and  candor.  If  my  reader,  therefore, 
scruples  to  accord  me  the  merit  of  the  generosity  that  I  lay 
claim  to,  let  him  revel  in  the  depreciating  confession  that  I 
am  about  to  make.  I  knew  that  when  it  was  discovered  I 
was  not  Harpar,  I  must  instantly  be  set  at  liberty.  I  felt 
this,  and  could,  therefore,  be  at  any  moment  the  arbiter  of 
my  own  freedom.  To  do  this,  of  course,  would  set  in 
motion  a  search  after  the  real  delinquent,  and  I  determined 
I  would  keep  my  secret  till  he  had  ample  time  to  get  away. 
When  I  had  satisfied  myself  that  all  pursuit  of  him  must 
be  hopeless,  I  would  declare  myself  to  be  Potts,  and 
proudly  demand  my  liberation. 

My  convalescence  made  now  such  progress  that  I  was 
able  to  walk  about  the  gallery,  and  indeed  occasionally  to 
stroll  out  upon  a  long  terrace  which  flanked  the  entire  build- 
ing, and  gaze  upon  a  garden,  beyond  which  again  I  could 
see  the  town  of  Feldkirch  and  the  open  Platz  in  which  the 
weekly  market  was  held.  By  the  recurrence  of  these  —  they 
always  fell  upon  a  Saturday  —  was  I  enabled  to  mark  time, 
and  I  now  reckoned  that  three  weeks  had  gone  over  since 
the  day  of  the  Herr  Procurator's  visit,  and  yet  I  had  heard 
nothing  more  of  him,  nor  of  the  accusation  against  me.  I 
was  seriously  thinking  whether  my  wisest  plan  might  not  be 


366  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

to  take  French  leave  and  walk  off,  when  my  jailer  came  one 
morning  to  announce  that  I  was  to  be  transferred  to  Inn- 
spruck,  where,  in  due  course,  my  trial  would  take  place. 

"What  if  I  refuse  to  go?"  said  I;  *'what  if  I  demand 
my  liberation  here  on  the  spot?" 

*'  I  don't  imagine  that  you  'd  delay  your  journey  much  by 
that,  my  good  friend,"  said  he;  "the  Imperial  and  Royal 
Government  takes  little  heed  of  foolish  remonstrances." 

*'  What  if  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Government,  in  the 
plenitude  of  its  sagacity,  should  be  in  the  wrong?  What  if 
I  be  not  the  person  who  is  accused  of  this  crime  ?  What  if 
the  real  man  be  now  at  liberty?  What  if  the  accuser  him- 
self will  declare,  when  he  sees  me,  that  he  never  met  me 
before,  nor  so  much  as  heard  of  me  ?  " 

"  Well,  all  that  may  happen ;  I  won't  say  it  is  impossible, 
but  it  cannot  occur  here,  for  the  Herr  von  Rigges  has 
already  set  off  for  Innspruck,  and  you  are  to  follow  him 
to-morrow." 


CHAPTER  XLH. 

A   GLIMPSE    OF   AN    OLD    FRIEND. 

If  there  be  anything  in  our  English  habits  upon  which  no 
difference  of  opinion  can  exist,  it  is  our  proneness  to  extend 
to  a  foreigner  a  degree  of  sympathy  and  an  amount  of  inter- 
est that  we  obstinately  deny  to  our  own  people.  The  English 
artist  struggling  all  but  hopelessly  against  the  town's  indif- 
ference has  but  to  displace  the  consonants  or  multiply  the 
vowels  of  his  name  to  be  a  fashion  with  it  and  a  success. 
Strange  and  incomprehensible  tendency  in  a  nation  so  over- 
whelmingly impressed  with  a  sense  of  its  own  vast  superi- 
ority !  But  so  it  is.  Mr.  Brady  may  sing  to  empty  benches, 
while  il  Signor  Bradini  would  "bring  down  the  house." 
What  set  me  thinking  over  this  was,  that  though  Silvio  Pel- 
lico  was  a  stock  theme  for  English  pity  and  compassion,  I 
very  much  doubted  if  a  single  tear  would  fall  for  the  mis- 
fortunes of  Potts.  And  yet  there  was  a  marvellous  simi- 
larity in  our  suffering.  In  each  case  was  the  Austrian 
the  jailer ;  in  each  case  was  the  victim  a  creature  of  tender 
mould  and  gentle  nature. 

I  travelled  in  a  sort  of  covered  cart,  with  a  mounted  gen- 
darme at  either  side  of  me.  Indeed,  the  one  faintly  allevi- 
ating circumstance  of  my  captivity  was  the  sight  of  those 
two  heavily  equipped  giants,  armed  to  the  teeth,  who  were 
supposed  to  be  essential  to  my  safe  conduct.  It  was  such 
an  acknowledgment  of  what  they  had  to  apprehend  from 
my  well-known  prowess  and  daring,  so  palpable  a  confession 
that  every  precaution  was  necessary  against  the  bold  intre- 
pidity of  a  man  of  my  stamp !  At  times,  I  almost  wished 
they  had  put  chains  upon  me.  I  thought  how  well  it  would 
read  in  my  Memoirs;  how  I  was  heavily  *'  manacled,"  —  a 
great  word   that,  —  *' orders  being   given  to  the  escort   to 


368  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

shoot  me  if  I  showed  the  slightest  intention  to  escape."  It 
was  an  intense  pleasure  to  me  to  imagine  myself  a  sort  of 
Nana  Sahib,  and  whenever  we  halted  at  some  wayside  public, 
and  the  idle  loungers  would  draw  aside  the  canvas  covering 
and  stare  in  at  me,  I  did  my  utmost  to  call  up  an  expression 
of  ogre-like  ferocity  and  wildness,  and  it  was  with  a  thrill  of 
ecstasy  I  saw  a  little  child  clasp  its  mother  by  the  neck,  and 
scream  out  to  come  away  as  it  beheld  me. 

On  the  second  night  of  our  journey  we  halted  at  a  little 
village  at  the  foot  of  the  Arlberg,  called  Steuben,  where,  in 
default  of  a  regular  prison,  they  lodged  me  in  an  old  tower, 
the  lower  part  of  which  was  used  for  a  stable.  It  stood  in 
the  very  centre  of  the  town,  and  from  its  narrow  and  barred 
windows  I  could  catch  glimpses  of  the  little  woiM  that 
moved  about  in  happy  freedom  beneath  me.  I  could  see  the 
Marktplatz,  from  which  the  booths  were  now  being  taken 
down,  and  could  mark  that  preparations  for  some  approach- 
ing ceremony  were  going  on,  but  of  what  nature  I  could  not 
guess.  A  large  place  was  neatly  swept  out,  and  at  last 
strewn  with  sawdust,  —  signs  unerring  of  some  exhibition  of 
legerdemain  or  conjuring,  of  which  the  Tyrolese  are  warm 
admirers.  The  arrangements  were  somewhat  more  porten- 
tous than  are  usually  observed  in  open-air  representations, 
for  I  saw  seats  prepared  for  the  dignitaries  of  the  village, 
and  an  evident  design  to  mark  the  entertainment  as  under 
the  most  distinguished  protection.  The  crowd  —  now  con- 
siderable —  observed  all  the  decorous  bearing  of  citizens  in 
presence  of  their  authorities. 

I  nestled  myself  snugly  in  the  deep  recess  of  the  window 
to  watch  the  proceedings,  nor  had  I  long  to  wait ;  some  half- 
dozen  gayly  dressed  individuals  having  now  pierced  their 
way  through  the  throng,  and  commenced  those  peculiar 
gambols  which  bespeak  backbones  of  gristle  and  legs  of 
pasteboard.  It  is  a  class  of  performance  I  enjoy  vastly. 
The  two  fellows  who  lap  over  each  other  like  the  links  of  a 
chain,  and  the  creature  who  rolls  himself  about  like  a  ball, 
and  the  licensed  freedoms  of  that  man  of  the  world  —  the 
clown  —  never  weary  me,  and  I  believe  I  laugh  at  them  with 
all  the  more  zest  that  I  have  so  often  laughed  at  them 
l^efore.     It  was   plain,  after  a  while,  that  a  more  brilliant 


A  GLIMPSE  OF  AN  OLD  FRIEND.        369 

part  of  the  spectacle  was  yet  to  come,  for  a  large  bluff- 
looking  man,  in  cocked-hat  and  jack-boots,  now  entered  the 
ring  and  indignantly  ejected  the  clowns  by  sundry  admoni- 
tions with  a  lash-whip,  which  I  perceived  were  not  merely 
make-believes. 

"Ah,  here  he  comes!  here  he  is!"  was  now  uttered  in 
accents  of  eager  interest,  and  an  avenue  was  quickly  made 
through  the  crowd  for  the  new  performer.  There  was  delay 
after  this ;  and  tliough  doubtless  the  crowd  below  could 
satisfy  their  curiosity,  I  was  so  highly  perched  and  so 
straitened  in  my  embrasure  that  I  had  to  wait,  with  what 
patience  I  might,  the  new  arrival.  I  was  deep  in  my  guesses 
what  sort  of  "  artist"  he  might  prove,  when  I  saw  the  head 
of  a  horse  peering  over  the  shoulders  of  the  audience,  and 
then  the  entire  figure  of  the  quadruped  as  he  emerged  into 
the  circle,  all  sheeted  and  shrouded  from  gaze.  With  one 
dexterous  sweep  the  groom  removed  all  the  clothing,  and 
there  stood  before  me  my  own  lost  treasure,  —  Blondel  him- 
self! I  would  have  known  him  among  ten  thousand.  He 
was  thinner,  perhaps,  certainly  thinner,  but  in  all  other 
respects  the  same ;  his  silky  mane  and  his  long  tassel  of  a 
tail  hung  just  as  gracefully  as  of  yore,  and,  as  he  ambled 
round,  he  moved  his  head  with  a  courteous  inclination,  as 
though  to  acknowledge  the  plaudits  he  met  with. 

There  was  in  his  air  the  dignity  that  said,  ''  I  am  one 
who  has  seen  better  days.  It  was  not  always  thus  with  me. 
Applaud  if  you  must,  and  if  you  will ;  but  remember  that  I 
accept  your  plaudits  with  reserve,  perhaps  even  with  reluc- 
tance." Poor  fellow,  my  heart  bled  for  him!  I  felt  as 
though  I  saw  a  cathedral  canon  cutting  somersaults,  and  all 
this  while,  by  some  strange  inconsistency,  I  had  not  a  sym- 
pathy to  bestow  on  the  human  actors  in  the  scene.  "  As  for 
them,"  thought  I,  "  they  have  accepted  this  degradation  of 
their  own  free  will.  If  they  had  not  shirked  honest  labor, 
they  need  never  have  been  clowns  or  pantaloons;  but 
Blondel  —  Blondel,  whom  fate  had  stamped  as  the  palfrey 
of  some  high-born  maiden,  or,  at  least,  the  favorite  steed  of 
one  who  would  know  how  to  lavish  care  on  an  object  of  such 
perfection  —  Blondel,  who  had  borne  himself  so  proudly 
in   high   places,  and  who,  even    in  his   declining  fortunes, 

24 


370  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

had  been  the  friend  and  fellow-traveller  of —  Yes,  why- 
should  I  shame  to  say  it?  Posterity  will  speak  of  Potts 
without  the  detracting  malice  and  envious  rancor  of  contem- 
poraries ;  and  when,  in  some  future  age,  a  great  philanthro- 
pist or  statesman  should  claim  the  credit  of  some  marvellous 
discovery,  some  wondrous  secret  by  which  humanity  may  be 
bettered,  a  learned  critic  will  tell  the  world  how  this  great 
invention  was  evidently  known  to  Potts,  how  at  such  a  line 
or  such  a  page  we  shall  find  that  Potts  knew  it  all." 

The  wild  cheering  of  the  crowd  beneath  cut  short  these 
speculations,  and  now  I  saw  Blondel  cantering  gayly  round 
the  circle,  with  a  handkerchief  in  his  mouth.  If  in  sportive 
levity  it  chanced  to  fall,  he  would  instantly  wheel  about  and 
seize  it,  and  then,  whisking  his  tail  and  shaking  his  long 
forelock,  resume  his  course  again.  It  was  fine,  too,  to 
mark  the  haughty  indifference  he  manifested  towards  that 
whip-cracking  monster  who  stood  in  the  centre,  and  affected 
to  direct  his  motions.  Not  alone  did  he  reject  his  sugges- 
tions, but  in  a  spirit  of  round  defiance  did  he  canter  up 
behind  him,  and  alight  with  his  forelegs  on  the  fellow'a 
shoulders.  I  am  not  sure  whether  the  spectators  regarded 
the  tableau  as  I  did,  but  to  me  it  seemed  an  allegorical 
representation  of  man  and  his  master. 

The  hard  breathing  of  a  person  close  behind  me  now  made 
me  turn  my  head,  and  I  saw  the  jailer,  who  had  come  with 
my  supper.  A  thought  flashed  suddenly  across  me.  "Go 
down  to  those  mountebanks,  and  ask  if  they  will  sell  that 
cream-colored  pony,"  said  I.  "Bargain  as  though  you 
wanted  him  for  yourself;  he  is  old  and  of  little  value,  and 
you  may,  perhaps,  secure  him  for  eighty  or  ninety  florins ; 
and  if  so,  you  shall  have  ten  more  for  your  pains.  It 
is  a  caprice  of  mine,  nothing  more,  but  help  me  to  gratify 
it." 

He  heard  me  with  evident  astonishment,  and  then  gravely 
asked  if  I  had  forgotten  the  circumstance  that  I  was  a 
prisoner,  and  likely  to  remain  so  for  some  time. 

"Do  as  I  bade  you,"  said  I,  "and  leave  the  result  to  me. 
There,  lose  no  more  time  about  it,  for  I  see  the  performance 
is  drawing  to  a  close." 

"Nay,  nay,"  said  he;  "the  best  of   all  is  yet  to  come. 


A  GLIMPSE  OF  AN  OLD  FRIEND.  37I 

The  pretty  Moorish  girl  has  not  yet  appeared.  Ha!  here 
she  is." 

As  he  spoke,  he  crept  up  into  the  window  beside  me,  not 
less  eager  for  the  spectacle  than  myself.  A  vigorous  cheer, 
and  a  loud  clapping  of  hands  below  announced  that  the 
favorite  was  in  sight  long  before  she  was  visible  to  our 
eyes. 

"What  can  she  do?"  asked  I,  peevishly,  perhaps,  for  I 
was  provoked  how  completely  she  had  eclipsed  poor  Blondel 
in  public  favor.  "What  can  she  do?  Is  she  a  rope-dancer, 
or  does  she  ride  in  the  games  of  the  ring  ?  " 

** There,  there!  Look  at  her;  yonder  she  goes!  and 
there  *s  the  young  Prince  —  they  call  him  a  Prince,  at  least 
—  who  follows  her  everywhere." 

I  could  not  but  smile  at  the  poor  jailer's  simplicity,  and 
would  willingly  have  explained  to  him  that  we  have  outlived 
the  age  of  Cinderellas.  Indeed,  I  had  half  turned  towards 
him  with  this  object,  when  a  perfect  roar  of  the  crowd  be- 
neath me  drew  off  my  attention  from  him  to  what  was  going 
on  below.  I  soon  saw  what  it  was  that  entranced  the  public : 
it  was  the  young  girl,  who  now,  standing  on  Blondel' s  back, 
was  careering  round  the  circle  at  full  speed.  It  is  an  exer- 
cise in  which  neither  the  horse  nor  the  rider  is  seen  to 
advantage;  the  heavy  monotonous  tramp  of  the  beast, 
cramped  by  the  narrow  limits,  becomes  a  stilty,  wooden 
gallop.  The  rider,  too,  more  careful  of  her  balance  than 
intent  upon  graceful  action,  restricts  herself  to  a  few,  and 
by  no  means  picturesque  attitudes.  With  all  this,  the  girl 
now  before  me  seemed  herself  so  intensely  to  enter  into  the 
enjoyment  of  the  scene,  that  all  her  gestures  sprang  out  of 
a  sort  of  irrepressible  delight.  Far  from  unsteadying  her 
foot,  or  limiting  her  action,  the  speed  of  the  horse  appeared 
to  assist  the  changeful  bendings  of  her  graceful  figure,  as 
now,  dropping  on  one  knee,  she  would  lean  over  to  caress 
him,  or  now,  standing  erect,  with  folded  arms  and  leg 
advanced,  appeared  to  dare  him  to  displace  her.  Fault- 
lessly graceful  as  she  was,  there  was  that  in  her  own  evi- 
dent enjoyment  that  imparted  a  strange  delight  to  the 
beholder,  and  gave  to  the  spectacle  the  sort  of  magnetism 
by  which  pleasure  finds  its  way  from  heart  to  heart  through- 


3T2  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

out  a  multitude.  At  least,  I  suppose  this  must  have  been 
so,  for  in  the  joyous  cheering  of  that  crowd  there  was  a  ring 
of  wild  delight  far  different  from  mere  applause. 

At  last,  poor  Blondel,  blown  and  wearied,  turned 
abruptly  into  the  middle  of  the  ring,  and  with  panting  sides 
and  shaking  tail  came  to  a  dead  halt.  The  girl,  with  a 
graceful  slide  seated  herself  on  his  back  and  patted  him 
playfully.  And  to  me  this  was  by  far  the  most  graceful 
movement  of  the  whole. 

It  was  really  a  picture!  and  so  natural  and  so  easy 
withal,  that  one  forgot  all  about  her  spangles  and  tinsel, 
the  golden  fillet  of  her  hair,  and  the  tawdry  fringe  of  her 
sandals;  and,  what  was  even  harder  still,  heard  not  the 
hoarse-mouthed  enthusiasm  that  greeted  her.  At  length,  a 
tall  man,  well-dressed  and  of  striking  appearance,  pushed 
his  way  into  the  ring,  and  politely  presented  her  with  a 
bouquet,  at  which  piece  of  courtesy  the  audience,  noways 
jealous,  again  redoubled  their  applause.  She  now  looked 
round  her  with  an  air  of  triumphant  pleasure,  and  while, 
with  a  playful  gesture,  she  flung  back  the  ringlets  on  her 
neck,  she  lifted  her  face  full  to  my  view,  and  it  was  Tinte- 
fleck  I  With  all  my  might  I  cried  out,  ' '  Catinka !  Catinka !  " 
I  know  not  why,  but  the  impulse  never  waited  to  argue  the 
question.  Though  I  screamed  my  loudest,  the  great  height 
at  which  I  was  placed,  and  the  humming  din  of  the  crowd, 
totally  drowned  my  words.  Again  and  again  I  tried  it, 
but  to  no  purpose.  There  she  sat,  slowly  making  the 
round  of  the  circus,  while  the  stranger  walked  at  her  side, 
to  all  seeming  conversing  as  though  no  busy  and  prying 
multitude  stood  watching  and  observing  them.  Wearied 
with  my  failure  to  attract  notice,  I  turned  to  address  the 
jailer;  but  he  had  already  gone,  and  I  was  alone.  I  next 
endeavored  by  a  signal  to  call  attention  to  me,  and,  at  last, 
saw  how  two  or  three  of  the  crowd  had  observed  my  waving 
a  handkerchief,  and  were  pointing  it  out  to  others.  Doubt- 
less they  wondered  how  a  poor  captive  could  care  for  the 
pleasant  follies  of  a  life  of  whose  commonest  joys  he  was 
to  be  no  sharer,  and  still  greater  was  their  astonishment  as 
I  flung  forth  a  piece  of  money,  —  a  gold  Napoleon,  it  was, 
—  which  they  speedily  caught  up  and  gave  to  Catinka.    How 


A  GLIMPSE  OF  AN  OLD  FRIEND.  373 

I  watched  her  as  she  took  it  and  showed  it  to  the  stranger! 
He,  by  his  gesture,  seemed  angry,  and  made  a  motion  as 
though  asking  her  to  throw  it  away ;  and  then  there  seemed 
some  discussion  between  them,  and  his  petulance  increased ; 
and  she,  too,  grew  passionate,  and,  leaping  from  the  horse, 
strode  haughtily  across  the  circus  and  disappeared.  And 
then  arose  a  tumult  and  confusion,  the  mob  shouting  madly 
for  the  Moorish  girl  to  come  back,  and  many  much  disposed 
to  avenge  her  absence  on  the  stranger.  As  for  him,  he 
pushed  the  mob  haughtily  aside  and  went  his  way;  and 
though  for  a  while  the  crowd  continued  to  vent  its  expres- 
sions of  displeasure  and  disappointment,  the  performance 
soon  concluded,  and  all  went  their  several  roads  homeward ; 
and  when  I  looked  out  upon  the  empty  Platz,  over  which  the 
dusky  shadows  of  the  old  houses  were  now  stealing  to 
mingle  together,  and  instead  of  the  scene  of  bustle  and 
excitement  saw  a  few  lingering  townsfolk  moody  and  pur- 
poseless, r  asked  myself  if  the  whole  incidents  were  not  a 
vision  mind-drawn  and  invented.  There  was  not  one  single 
clew  by  which  I  could  trace  it  to  reality. 

More  than  once  in  my  life  had  my  dreamy  temperament 
played  me  such  pranks;  and,  strangely  too,  even  when  I 
had  assured  myself  of  the  deception,  there  would  yet  linger 
in  my  mind  thoughts  and  impressions  strong  enough  to 
influence  my  actions,  just  as  we  often  see  that  our  disbelief 
in  a  scandalous  story  is  not  suflOicient  to  disabuse  us  of  a 
certain  power  it  wields  over  us. 

Oh,  what  a  long  and  dreary  night  was  that,  harassed  with 
doubts,  and  worn  out  with  speculations!  My  mind  had 
been  much  weakened  by  my  fever,  and  whenever  I  followed 
a  train  of  thought  too  long,  confusion  was  sure  to  ensue. 
The  terror  of  this  chaotic  condition,  where  all  people  and 
lands  and  ideas  and  incidents  jostle  against  each  other  in 
mad  turmoil,  can  only  be  estimated  by  one  who  has  felt  it. 
Like  the  awful  rush  of  sensations  of  him  who  is  sliding 
down  some  steep  descent  to  a  tremendous  precipice,  one 
feels  the  gradual  approach  of  that  dreamy  condition  where 
reason  is  lost,  and  the  mind  a  mere  waif  upon  the  waters. 

"Here  's  your  breakfast,"  said  the  jailer,  as  he  stopped 
the  course  of  my  revery.     "And  the  Brigadier  hopes  you  *11 


374  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

be  speedy  with  it,  for  you  must  reach  Maltz  by  night- 
fall." 

"Tell  me,"  said  I,  eagerly,  "was  there  a  circus  company 
here  yesterday  evening?  Did  they  exhibit  on  the  Platz 
there?" 

"You  are  a  deep  one,  you  are!"  muttered  he,  sulkily  to 
himself,  and  left  the  cell. 


CHAPTER  XLm. 

I  AM   CONFINED   IN   THE   AMBRAS    SCHLOSS. 

I  BORE  up  admirably  on  my  journey.  I  felt  I  was  doing 
a  very  heroic  thing.  By  my  personation  of  Harpar,  I  was 
securing  that  poor  fellow's  escape,  and  giving  him  ample 
time  to  get  over  the  Austrian  frontier,  and  many  a  mile 
away  from  the  beaks  of  the  Double  Eagle.  I  had  read  of 
such  things  in  history,  and  I  resolved  I  would  not  derogate 
from  the  proudest  records  of  such  self-devotion.  Had  I 
but  remembered  how  long  my  illness  had  lasted,  I  might 
have  easily  seen  that  Harpar  could  by  this  time  have 
arrived  at  Calcutta;  but,  unfortunately  for  me,  I  had  no 
gauge  of  time  whatever,  and  completely  forgot  the  long 
interval  of  my  fever. 

On  reaching  Innspruck,  I  was  sent  on  to  an  old  chateau 
some  ten  miles  away,  called  the  Ambras  Schloss,  and  being 
consigned  to  the  charge  of  a  retired  artillery  officer  there, 
they  seemed  to  have  totally  forgotten  all  about  me.  I  lived 
with  my  old  jailer  just  as  if  I  were  his  friend :  we  worked 
together  in  the  garden,  pruned,  and  raked,  and  hoed,  and 
weeded;  we  smoked  and  fished,  and  mended  our  nets  on 
wet  days,  and  read,  living  exactly  as  might  any  two  people 
in  a  remote  out-of-the-world  spot. 

There  is  a  sort  of  armory  at  the  Ambras,  chiefly  of  old 
Tyrolese  weapons  of  an  early  period,  —  maces  and  halberds, 
and  double-handed  swords,  and  such-like,  —  and  one  of 
our  pastimes  was  arranging  and  settling  and  cataloguing 
them,  for  which,  in  the  ancient  records  of  the  Schloss,  there 
was  ample  material.  This  was  an  occupation  that  amused 
me  vastly,  and  I  took  to  it  with  great  zeal,  and  with  such 
success  that  old  Hirsch,  the  jailer,  at  last  consigned  the 
whole  to  my  charge,  along  with  the  task  of  exhibiting  the 


376  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

collection  to  strangers,  —  a  source  from  which  the  honest 
veteran  derived  the  better  part  of  his  means  of  life. 

At  first,  I  scarcely  liked  my  function  as  showman,  but, 
like  all  my  other  experiences  in  life,  habit  sufficed  to 
reconcile  me,  and  I  took  to  the  occupation  as  though  I  had 
been  born  to  it.  If  now  and  then  some  rude  or  vulgar  trav- 
eller would  ruffle  my  temper  by  some  illiterate  remark  or 
stupid  question,  I  was  well  repaid  by  intercourse  with  a 
different  stamp.  They  were  to  me  such  peeps  at  the  world 
as  a  monk  might  have  from  the  windows  of  his  cloister, 
tempting,  perhaps,  but  always  blended  with  the  sense  of 
the  security  that  encompassed  him,  and  defended  him  from 
the  cares  of  existence. 

Perhaps  the  consciousness  that  I  could  assert  my  inno- 
cence and  procure  my  freedom  at  any  moment,  for  the  first 
few  months  reconciled  me  to  this  strange  life;  but  certainly, 
after  a  while,  I  ceased  to  care  for  any  other  existence,  and 
never  troubled  my  head  either  about  past  or  future.  I  had, 
in  fact,  arrived  at  the  great  monastic  elevation,  in  which 
a  man,  ceasing  to  be  human,  reaches  the  dignity  of  a 
vegetable. 

I  had  begun,  as  I  have  said,  by  an  act  of  heroism,  in 
accepting  all  the  penalties  of  another,  and,  long  after  I 
ceased  to  revert  to  this  sacrifice,  the  impulse  it  had  once 
given  still  continued  to  move  me.  If  Hirsch  never  alluded 
to  my  imputed  crime  to  me,  I  was  equally  reserved  towards 
him. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

A   VISIT    FROM   THE    HON.    GREY   BULLER. 

From  time  to  time,  a  couple  of  grave,  judicial-looking  men 
would  arrive  and  pass  the  forenoon  at  the  Ambras  Schloss, 
in  reading  out  certain  documents  to  me.  I  never  paid  much 
attention  to  them,  but  my  ear  at  moments  would  catch  the 
strangest  possible  allegations  as  to  my  exalted  political 
opinions,  the  dangerous  associates  I  was  bound  up  with, 
and  the  secret  societies  I  belonged  to.  I  heard  once,  too, 
and  by  mere  accident,  how  at  Steuben  I  had  asked  the 
jailer  to  procure  me  a  horse,  and  thrown  gold  in  handfuls 
from  the  windows  of  my  prison,  to  bribe  the  townsfolk  to 
my  rescue,  and  I  laughed  to  myself  to  think  what  a  deal  of 
pleading  and  proof  it  would  take  to  rebut  all  these  allega- 
tions, and  how  little  likely  it  was  I  would  ever  engage  in 
such  a  conflict. 

By  long  dwelling  on  the  thought  of  my  noble  devotion, 
and  how  it  would  read  when  I  was  dead  and  gone,  I  had 
extinguished  within  my  heart  all  desire  for  other  distinc- 
tion, speculating  only  on  what  strange  and  ingenious  theo- 
ries men  would  spin  for  the  secret  clew  to  my  motives. 
"True,"  they  would  say,  "Potts  never  cared  for  Harpar.  He 
was  not  a  man  to  whom  Potts  would  have  attached  himself 
under  any  circumstances;  they  were,  as  individuals,  totally 
unlike  and  unsympathetic.  How,  then,  explain  this  extraor- 
dinary act  of  self-sacrifice?  Was  he  prompted  by  the  hope 
that  the  iniquities  of  the  Austrian  police  system  would 
receive  their  death-blow  from  his  story,  and  that  the  mound 
that  covered  him  in  the  churchyard  would  be  the  altar  of 
Liberty  to  thousands?  Or  was  Potts  one  of  those  enthusi- 
astic creatures  only  too  eager  to  carry  the  load  of  some  other 
pilgrim  in  life?" 


378  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

While  I  used  thus  to  reason  and  speculate,  I  little  kne^v 
that  I  had  become  a  sort  of  European  notoriety.  Some 
Englishwomaji,  however,  some  vagrant  tourist,  had  put  me 
in  her  book  as  the  half-witted  creature  who  showed  the  coins 
and  curiosities  at  Ambras,  and  mentioned  how,  for  I  know 
not  how  many  years,  I  was  never  heard  to  utter  a  syllable 
except  on  questions  of  old  armor  and  antiquities.  In  con- 
sequence I  was  always  asked  for  by  my  travelling  country- 
men, and  my  peculiarities  treated  with  all  that  playful  good 
taste  for  which  tourists  are  famous.  I  remember  one  day 
having  refused  to  perform  the  showman  to  a  British  family. 
I  had  a  headache,  or  was  sulky,  or  a  fit  of  rebellion  had  got 
hold  of  me,  but  I  sauntered  out  into  the  grounds  and  would 
not  see  them.  In  my  walk  through  a  close  alley  of  laurels, 
I  chanced  to  overhear  the  stranger  conversing  with  Hirsch, 
and  making  myself  the  subject  of  his  inquiries;  and,  as  I 
listened,  I  heard  Hirsch  say  that  one  entire  room  of  the 
<;hdteau  was  devoted  to  the  papers  and  documents  in  my  case, 
and  that  probably  it  would  occupy  a  quick  reader  about 
twelve  months  to  peruse  them.  He  added,  that  as  I  made 
no  application  for  a  trial  myself,  nor  any  of  my  friends 
showed  an  inclination  to  bestir  themselves  about  me,  the 
Oovernment  would  very  probably  leave  me  to  live  and  die 
where  I  was.  Thereupon  the  Briton  broke  out  into  a  worthy 
fit  of  indignant  eloquence.  He  denounced  the  Hapsburgs 
and  praised  the  Habeas  Corpus ;  he  raved  of  the  power  of 
England,  our  press,  our  public  opinion,  our  new  frigates. 
He  said  he  would  make  Europe  ring  with  the  case.  It  was 
as  bad,  it  was  worse  than  Caspar  Hauser's,  for  he  was  an 
idiot  outright,  and  /  appeared  to  have  the  enjoyment  of 
cert^-in  faculties.  He  said  it  should  appear  in  the  "Times," 
and  be  mentioned  in  the  House;  and  as  I  listened,  the 
strangest  glow  ran  through  me,  a  mild  and  pleasurable 
enthusiasm,  to  think  that  all  the  might,  majesty,  and  power 
of  Great  Britain  was  about  to  interest  itself  in  behalf  of 
Potts! 

The  Briton  kept  his  word;  the  time,  too,  favored  him. 
It  was  a  moment  when  wandering  Englishmen  were  exhum- 
ing grievances  throughout  every  land  of  Europe ;  and  while 
one  had  discovered  some  case  of  religious  intolerance  in 


A  VISIT  FROM  THE   HON.  GREY  BULLER.  379 

Norway,  another  beat  him  out  of  the  field  with  the  cold- 
blooded atrocities  of  Naples.  My  Englishman  chanced  to 
be  an  M.P.,  and  therefore  he  asked,  "in  his  place,"  if  the 
Foreign  Secretary  had  any  information  to  afford  the  House 
with  respect  to  the  case  of  the  man  called  Harper,  or  Har- 
par,  he  was  not  certain  which,  and  who  had  been  confined 
for  upwards  of  ten  months  in  a  dungeon  in  Austria,  on 
allegations  of  which  the  accused  knew  nothing  whatever, 
and  attested  by  witnesses  with  whom  he  had  never  been 
confronted. 

In  the  absence  of  his  chief,  the  Under-Secretary  rose  to 
assure  the  right  honorable  gentleman  that  the  case  was  one 
which  had  for  a  considerable  time  engaged  the  attention  of 
the  department  he  belonged  to,  and  that  the  most  unremit- 
ting exertions  of  her  Majesty's  envoy  at  Vienna  were  now 
being  devoted  to  obtain  the  fullest  information  as  to  the 
charges  imputed  to  Harpar,  and  he  hoped  in  a  few  days  to 
be  able  to  lay  the  result  of  his  inquiry  on  the  table  of  the 
House. 

It  was  in  about  a  week  after  this  that  Hirsch  came  to  tell 
me  that  a  member  of  her  Majesty's  legation  at  Vienna  had 
arrived  to  investigate  my  case,  and  interrogate  me  in  per- 
son. I  am  half  ashamed  to  say  how  vaingloriously  I 
thought  of  the  importance  thus  lent  me.  I  felt,  somehow, 
as  though  the  nation  missed  me.  Waiting  patiently,  as  it 
might  be,  for  my  return,  and  yet  no  tidings  coming,  they 
said,  "What  has  become  of  Potts?"  It  was  clearly  a  case 
upon  which  they  would  not  admit  of  any  mystification  or 
deceit.  "No  secret  tribunals,  no  hole-and-corner  commit- 
ments with  us!  Where  is  he?  Produce  him.  Say,  with 
what  is  he  charged  ?  "  I  was  going  to  be  the  man  of  the 
day.  I  knew  it,  T  felt  it;  I  saw  a  great  tableau  of  my  life 
unrolling  itself  before  me.  Potts,  the  young  enthusiast  after 
virtue,  —  hopeful,  affectionate,  confiding,  giving  his  young 
heart  to  that  fair-haired  girl  as  freely  as  he  would  have 
bestowed  a  moss-rose;  and  she,  making  light  of  the  gift, 
and  with  a  woman's  coquetry,  torturing  him  by  a  jealous 
levity  till  he  resented  the  wrong,  and  tore  himself  away. 
And  then,  Catinka,  —  how  I  tried  the  gold  of  my  nature  in 
that  crucible,  and  would  not  fall  in  love  with  her  before  I 


380  A  DAY'S  KIDE. 

had  made  her  worthy  of  my  love ;  and  when  I  had  failed  in 
that,  how  I  had  turned  from  love  to  friendship,  and  offered 
myself  the  victim  for  a  man  I  never  cared  about.  No 
matter ;  the  world  will  know  me  at  last.  Men  will  recog- 
nize the  grand  stuff  that  I  am  made  of.  If  commentators 
spend  years  in  exploring  the  recondite  passages  of  great 
writers,  and  making  out  beauties  where  there  were  only 
obscurities,  why  should  not  all  the  dark  parts  of  my  nature 
come  out  as  favorably,  and  some  flattering  interpreter  say, 
*' Potts  was  for  a  long  time  misconceived;  few  men  were 
more  wrongfully  judged  by  their  contemporaries.  It  was 
to  a  mere  accident,  after  all,  we  owe  it  that  we  are  now 
enabled  to  render  him  the  justice  so  long  denied  him.  His 
was  one  of  those  remarkable  natures  in  which  it  is  difficult 
to  say  whether  humility  or  self-confidence  predominated  "  ? 

Then  I  thought  of  the  national  excitement  to  discover  the 
missing  Potts ;  just  as  if  I  had  been  a  lost  Arctic  voyager. 
Expeditions  sent  out  to  track  me ;  all  the  thousand  specu- 
lations as  to  whether  I  had  gone  this  way  or  that;  where  and 
from  whom  the  latest  tidings  of  me  could  be  traced;  the 
heroic  offers  of  new  discoverers  to  seek  me  living,  or,  sad 
alternative,  restore  to  the  country  that  mourned  me  the 
reliquice  Pottsi.  I  always  grew  tender  in  my  moods  of  self- 
compassion,  and  I  felt  my  eyes  swimming  now  in  pity  for 
my  fate;  and  let  me  add  in  this  place  my  protest  against 
the  vulgar  error  which  stigmatizes  as  selfishness  the  mere 
fact  of  a  man's  susceptibility.  How,  I  would  simply  ask, 
can  he  feel  for  others  who  has  no  sense  of  sympathy  with 
his  own  suffering  nature?  If  the  well  of  human  kindness 
be  dried  up  within  him,  how  can  he  give  to  the  parched 
throats  the  refreshing  waters  of  compassion  ? 

Deal  with  the  fact  how  you  may,  I  was  very  sorry  for 
myself,  and  seriously  doubted  if  as  sincere  a  mourner  would 
bewail  me  when  I  was  gone. 

If  a  little  time  had  been  given  me,  I  would  have  endeav- 
ored to  get  up  my  snug  little  chamber  somewhat  more  like 
a  prison  cell ;  I  would  have  substituted  some  straw  for  my 
comfortable  bed,  and  gracefully  draped  a  few  chains  upon 
the  walls  and  some  stray  torture  implements  out  of  the 
Armory;  but  the  envoy  came  like  a  "thief  in  the  night,'* 
and  was  already  on  the  stairs  when  he  was  announced. 


A  VISIT  FROM  THE  HON.  GREY  BULLER.  381 

*'0h!  this  is  his  den,  is  it?^*  cried  he  from  without,  as 
he  slowly  ascended  the  stairs.  "Egad!  he  hasn't  much  to 
complain  of  in  the  matter  of  a  lodging.  I  only  wish  our 
fellows  were  as  well  off  at  Vienna."  And  with  these  words 
there  entered  into  my  room  a  tall  young  fellow,  with  a  light 
brown  moustache,  dressed  in  a  loose  travelling  suit,  and 
with  the  lounging  air  of  a  man  sauntering  into  a  cafe.  He 
did  not  remove  his- hat  as  he  came  in,  or  take  the  cigar 
from  his  mouth ;  the  latter  circumstance  imparting  a  certain 
confusion  to  his  speech  that  made  him  occasionally  scarce 
intelligible.  Only  deigning  to  bestow  a  passing  look  on 
me,  he  moved  towards  the  window,  and  looked  out  on  the 
grand  panorama  of  the  Tyrol  Alps,  as  they  enclose  the  valley 
of  Innspruck. 

"Well,"  said  he  to  himself,  "all  this  ain't  so  bad  for  a 
dungeon." 

The  tone  startled  me.  I  looked  again  at  him,  I  rallied 
myself  to  an  effort  of  memory,  and  at  once  recalled  the 
young  fellow  I  had  met  on  the  South- Western  line  and 
from  whom  I  had  accidentally  carried  away  the  despatch- 
bag.  To  my  beard,  and  my  long  imprisonment,  I  trusted 
for  not  being  recognized,  and  I  sat  patiently  awaiting  my 
examination. 

"  An  Englishman,  I  suppose  ?  "  asked  he,  turning  hastily 
round.     "  And  of  English  parents  ?  " 

"Yes,"  was  my  reply,  for  I  determined  on  brevity  wher- 
ever possible. 

"What  brought  you  into  this  scrape?  —  I  mean,  why  did 
you  come  here  at  all  ?  '* 

"I  was  travelling." 

"Travelling?  Stuff  and  nonsense!  Why  should  fellows 
like  you  travel?     What 's  your  rank  in  life?" 

"A  gentleman." 

"Ah!  but  whose  gentleman,  my  worthy  friend?  Ain't 
you  a  flunkey?  There,  it's  out!  I  say,  have  you  got  a 
match  to  light  my  cigar  ?  Thanks,  —  all  right.  Look  here, 
now,  — don't  let  us  be  beating  about  the  bush  all  the  day, 
—  I  believe  this  government  is  just  as  sick  of  you  as  you 
are  of  them.     You  've  been  here  two  months,  ain't  it  so?  " 

"Ten  months  and  upwards." 


382  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 


((- 


Well,  ten  months.     And  you  want  to  get  away?" 

I  made  no  answer;  indeed,  his  free-and-easy  manner  so 
disconcerted  me  that  I  could  not  speak,  and  he  went 
on,  — 

"  I  suspect  they  have  n*t  got  much  against  you,  or  that 
they  don't  care  about  it;  and,  besides,  they  are  civil  to  us 
just  now.  At  all  events,  it  can  be  done,  — you  understand? 
—  it  can  be  done." 

*' Indeed,"  said  I,  half  superciliously. 

**Yes,"  resumed  he,  *'I  think  so;  not  but  you'd  have 
managed  better  in  leaving  the  thing  to  us.  That  stupid 
notion  you  all  have  of  writing  letters  to  newspapers  and 
getting  some  troublesome  fellow  to  ask  questions  in  the 
House,  that's  what  spoils  everything!  How  can  we  nego- 
tiate when  the  whole  story  is  in  the  '  Times  '  or  the  '  Daily 
News  '  ?  " 

"I  opine,  sir,  that  you  are  ascribing  to  me  an  activity 
and  energy  I  have  no  claim  to." 

*^Well,  if  you  didn't  write  those  letters,  somebody  else 
did.  I  don't  care  a  rush  for  the  difference.  You  see,  here  's 
how  the  matter  stands.  This  Mr.  Brigges,  or  Rigges,  has 
gone  off,  and  does  n't  care  to  prosecute,  and  all  his  allega- 
tions against  you  fall  to  the  ground.  Well,  these  people 
fancy  they  could  carry  on  the  thing  themselves,  you  under- 
stand ;  we  think  not.  They  say  they  have  got  a  strong  case; 
perhaps  they  have;  but  we  ask,  'What's  the  use  of  it? 
Sending  the  poor  beggar  to  Spielberg  won't  save  you,  will 
it?  '  And  so  we  put  it  to  them  this  way:  '  Draw  stakes,  let 
him  off,  and  both  can  cry  quits. '  There,  give  me  another 
light.     Is  n't  that  the  common-sense  view  of  it?  " 

"I  scarcely  dare  to  say  that  I  understand  you  aright." 

*'0h,  I  can  guess  why.  I  have  had  dealings  with  fellows 
of  your  sort  before.  You  don't  fancy  my  not  alluding  to 
compensation,  eh?  You  want  to  hear  about  the  money 
part  of  the  matter?  " 

And  he  laughed  aloud;  but  whether  at  my  mercenary 
spirit  or  Ms  own  shrewdness  in  detecting  it,  I  do  not  really 
know. 

''Well,  I'm  afraid,"  continued  he,  "you'll  be  disap- 
pointed there.     These  Austrians  are  hard  up ;  besides,  they 


A  VISIT  FROM  THE  HON.   GREY  BULLER.  383 

never  do  pay.     It 's  against  their  system,  and  so  we  never 
ask  them." 

"Would  it  be  too  much,  sir,  to  ask  why  I  have  been 
imprisoned  ?  " 

'* Perhaps  not;  but  a  great  deal  too  much  for  me  to  tell 
you.  The  confounded  papers  would  fill  a  cart,  and  that 's 
the  reason  I  say,  cut  your  stick,  my  man,  and  get  away." 
Again  he  turned  to  the  window,  and,  looking  out,  asked, 
"Any  shooting  about  here?  There  ought  to  be  cocks  in 
that  wood  yonder  ?  "  and  without  caring  for  reply,  went  on, 
"After  all,  you  know  what  bosh  it  is  to  talk  about  chains 
and  dungeons,  and  bread-and-water,  and  the  rest  of  it. 
You  've  been  living  in  clover  here.  That  old  fellow  below 
tells  me  that  you  dine  with  him  every  day ;  that  you  might 
have  gone  into  Innspruck,  to  the  theatre  if  you  liked  it.  — 
I  '11  swear  there  are  snipes  in  that  low  land  next  the  river. 
—  Think  it  over,  Rigges,  think  it  over." 

"I  am  not  Rigges." 

"Oh,  I  forgot!  you're  the  other  fellow.  Well,  think  it 
over,  Harpar." 

"My  name  is  not  Harpar,  sir." 

"What  do  I  care  for  a  stray  vowel  or  two?  Maybe  you 
call  yourself  Harpar,  or  Harper?     It 's  all  the  same  to  us.'' 

"It  is  not  the  question  of  a  vowel  or  two,  sir;  and  I 
desire  you  to  remark  it  is  the  graver  one  of  a  mistaken 
identity!  "  I  said  this  with  a  high-sounding  importance 
that  I  thought  must  astound  him ;  but  his  light  and  frivo- 
lous nature  was  impervious  to  rebuke. 

"  We  have  nothing  to  say  to  that,"  replied  he,  carelessly. 
"You  may  be  Noakes  or  Styles.  I  believe  they  are  the 
names  of  any  fellows  who  are  supposed  by  courtesy  to  have 
no  name  at  all,  and  it 's  all  alike  to  us.  What  I  have  to 
observe  to  you  is  this:  nobody  cares  very  much  whether 
you  are  detained  here  or  not;  nobody  wants  to  detain  you. 
Just  reflect,  therefore,  if  it 's  not  the  best  thing  you  can  do 
to  slope  off,  and  make  no  more  fuss  about  it  ?  " 

"Once  for  all,  sir,"  said  I,  still  more  impressively,  "I 
am  not  the  person  against  whom  this  charge  is  made.  The 
authorities  have  all  along  mistaken  me  for  another." 

"Well,  what  if  they  have?     Does  it  signify  one  kreutzer? 


384  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

We  have  had  trouble  enough  about  the  matter  already,  and 
do  not  embroil  us  any  further." 

"May  I  ask,  sir,  just  for  information,  who  are  the  '  we ' 
you  have  so  frequently  alluded  to  ?  " 

Had  I  asked  him  in  what  division  of  the  globe  he  under- 
stood us  then  to  be  conversing,  he  would  not  have  regarded 
me  with  a  look  of  more  blank  astonishment. 

"Who  are  we?"  repeated  he.  "Did  you  ask  who  are 
we?" 

"Yes,  sir,  that  was  what  I  made  bold  to  ask." 

"Cool,  certainly;  what  might  be  called  uncommon  cool. 
To  what  line  of  life  were  you  brought  up  to,  my  worthy 
gent?     I  have  rather  a  curiosity  about  your  antecedents." 

"That  same  curiosity  cost  you  a  trifle  once  before,"  said 
I,  no  longer  able  to  control  myself,  and  dying  to  repay  his 
impertinence.  "I  remember,  once  upon  a  time,  meeting  you 
on  a  railroad,  and  you  were  so  eager  to  exhibit  the  skill 
with  which  you  could  read  a  man's  calling,  that  you  bet  me 
a  sovereign  you  would  guess  mine.  You  did  so,  and 
lost." 

"You  can't  be  —  no,  it's  impossible.  Are  you  really 
the  goggle-eyed  fellow  that  walked  off  with  the  bag  for 
Kalbbratonstadt?" 

"I  did,  by  mistake,  carry  away  a  bag  on  that  occasion, 
and  so  punctiliously  did  I  repay  my  error  that  I  travelled 
the  whole  journey  to  convey  those  despatches  to  their 
destination." 

"I  know  all  about  it,"  said  he,  in  a  frank,  gay  manner. 
"Doubleton  told  me  the  whole  story.  You  dined  with  him 
and  pretended  you  were  I  don't  remember  whom,  and  then 
you  took  old  Mammxa  Keats  off  to  Como  and  made  her  be- 
lieve you  were  Louis  Philippe,  and  you  made  fierce  love  to 
your  pretty  companion,  who  was  fool  enough  to  like  you. 
By  Jove!  what  a  rig  you  must  have  run!  We  have  all 
laughed  over  it  a  score  of  times." 

"If  I  knew  who  '  we '  were,  I  am  certain  I  should  feel 
flattered  by  any  amusement  I  afforded  them,  notwithstand- 
ing how  much  more  they  are  indebted  to  fiction  than  fact 
regarding  me.  I  never  assumed  to  be  Louis  Philippe,  nor 
affected  to  be  any  person  of  distinction.     A  flighty  old  lady 


A  VISIT  FROM  THE  HON.  GREY  BULLER.  385 

was  foolish  enough  to  imagine  me  a  prince  of  the  Orleans 
family  —  " 

"You,  — a  prince!     Oh,  this  is  too  absurd!  '* 

"I  confess,  sir,  I  cannot  see  the  matter  in  this  light.  I 
presume  the  mistake  to  be  one  by  no  means  diflScult  to  have 
occurred.  Mrs.  Keats  has  seen  a  deal  of  life  and  the 
world  —  " 

"Not  so  much  as  you  fancy,"  broke  he  in.  "She  was  a 
long  time  in  that  private  asylum  up  at  Brompton,  and  then 
down  in  Staffordshire;  altogether,  she  must  have  passed 
five-and-twenty  or  thirty  years  in  a  rather  restricted 
circle." 

"Mad!     Was  she  mad?" 

"Not  what  one  would  call  mad,  but  queer.  They  were  all 
queer.  Hargrave,  the  second  brother,  was  the  fellow  that 
made  that  shindy  in  the  Mauritius,  and  our  friend  Shalley 
isn't  a  conjuror.  And  we  thought  you  were  larking  the 
old  lady,  I  assure  you  we  did." 

"'We'  were  once  more  mistaken,  then,"  said  I,  sneer- 
ingly. 

"  We  all  said,  too,  at  the  time,  that  Doubleton  had  been 
Met  in.*  He  gave  you  a  good  round  sum  for  expenses  on 
the  road,  did  n't  he,  and  you  sent  it  all  back  to  him." 

"Every  shilling  of  it." 

"So  he  told  us,  and  that  was  what  puzzled  us  more  than 
all  the  rest.     Why  did  you  give  up  the  money?  " 

"Simply,  sir,  because  it  was  not  mine." 

"Yes,  yes,  to  be  sure,  I  know  that;  but  I  mean,  what 
suggested  the  restitution  ?  " 

"Really,  sir,  your  question  leads  me  to  suppose  that  the 
*  we '  so  often  referred  to  are  not  eminently  remarkable  for 
integrity." 

"Like  their  neighbors,  I  take  it, — neither  better  nor 
worse.     But  won't  you  tell  why  you  gave  up  the  tin?  " 

"I  should  be  hopeless  of  any  attempt  to  explain  my 
motives,  sir;  so  pray  excuse  me." 

"You  were  right,  at  all  events,"  said  he,  not  heeding  the 
sarcasm  of  my  manner.  "There  's  no  chance  for  the 
knaves,  now,  with  the  telegraph  system.  As  it  was,  there 
were  orders  flying  through  Europe  to  arrest  Pottinger,  —  I 

25 


386  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

can't  forget  the  name.  We  used  to  have  it  every  day  in  the 
Chancellerie :  Pottinger,  five  feet  nine,  weak-looking  and 
vulgar,  low  forehead,  light  hair  and  eyes,  slight  lisp,  talks 
German  fluently,  but  ill.  I  have  copied  that  portrait  of 
you  twenty,  ay,  thirty  times." 

"And  yet,  sir,  neither  the  name  nor  the  description 
apply.  I  am  no  more  Pottinger  than  I  am  ignoble-looking 
and  vulgar." 

"What's  the  name,  then?  —  not  Harpar,  nor  Pottinger? 
But  who  cares  a  rush  for  the  name  of  fellows  like  you? 
You  change  them  just  as  you  do  the  color  of  your  coat." 

"May  I  take  the  liberty  of  asking,  sir,  just  for  informa- 
tion, as  vou  said  awhile  ago,  how  you  would  take  it  were  I 
to  make  as  free  with  you  as  you  have  been  pleased  to  do 
with  me  ?  To  give  a  mock  inventory  of  your  external 
characteristics,  and  a  false  name  to  yourself?" 

"Laugh,  probably,  if  I  were  amused;  throw  you  out  of 
the  window  if  you  offended  me." 

"The  very  thing  I  'd  do  with  you  this  moment,  if  I  was 
strong  enough,"  said  I,  resolutely.  And  he  flung  himself 
into  a  chair,  and  laughed  as  I  did  not  believe  he  could 
laugh. 

"Well,"  cried  he,  at  last,  "as  this  room  is  about  fifty 
feet  or  so  from  the  ground,  it 's  as  well  as  it  is.  But  now 
let  us  wind  up  this  affair.  You  want  to  get  away  from  this, 
I  suppose ;  and  as  nobody  wants  to  detain  you,  the  thing  is 
easy  enough.  You  need  n't  make  a  fuss  about  compensa- 
tion, for  they  '11  not  give  a  kreutzer,  and  you  'd  better  not 
write  a  book  about  it,  because  '  we  '  don't  stand  fellows 
who  write  books;  so  just  take  a  friend's  advice,  and  go  off 
without  military  honors  of  any  kind." 

"I  neither  acknowledge  the  friendship  nor  accept  the 
advice,  sir.  The  motives  which  induced  me  to  suffer 
imprisonment  for  another  are  quite  sufficient  to  raise  me 
above  any  desire  to  make  a  profit  of  it." 

"I  think  I  understand  2/ow,"  said  he,  with  a  cunning 
expression  in  his  half-closed  eyes.  "You  go  in  for  being 
a  '  character.'  Haven't  I  hit  it?  You  want  to  be  thought 
a  strange,  eccentric  sort  of  fellow.  Now  there  was  a  time 
the   world  had  a  taste  for  that  kind   of  thing.      Romeo 


A  VISIT  FROM  THE  HON.  GREY  BULLER.  887 

Coates,  and  Brummel,  and  that  Irish  fellow  that  walked  to 
Jerusalem,  and  half-a-dozen  others,  used  to  amuse  the  town 
in  those  days,  but  it 's  all  as  much  bygone  now  as  starched 
neckcloths  and  Hessian  boots.  Ours  is  an  age  of  paletots 
and  easy  manners,  and  you  are  trying  to  revive  what  our 
grandfathers  discarded  and  got  rid  of.  It  won't  do,  Pot- 
tinger;  it  will  not." 

"I  am  not  Pottinger;  my  name  is  Algernon  Sydney 
Potts." 

"Ah!  there's  the  mischief  all  out  at  last.  What  could 
come  of  such  a  collocation  of  names  but  a  life  of  incon- 
gruity and  absurdity!  You  owe  all  your  griefs  to  your 
godfathers.  Potts.  If  they  'd  have  called  you  Peter,  you  'd 
have  been  a  well-conducted  poor  creature.  Well,  I  'm  to 
give  you  a  passport.     Where  do  you  wish  to  go  ?  " 

"I  wish,  first  of  all,  to  go  to  Como." 

*'I  think  I  know  why.  But  you  're  on  a  wrong  cast 
there.     They  have  left  that  long  since." 

''Indeed,  and  for  what  place?" 

"They  've  gone  to  pass  the  winter  at  Malta.  Mamma 
Keats  required  a  dry,  warm  climate,  and  you  '11  find  them 
at  a  little  country-house  about  a  mile  from  Valetta ;  the  Jas- 
mines, I  think  it 's  called.  I  have  a  brother  quartered  in 
the  island,  and  he  tells  me  he  has  seen  them,  but  they  won't 
receive  visits,  nor  go  out  anywhere.  But,  of  course,  a 
Royal  Highness  is  always  sure  of  a  welcome.  Prince 
Potts  is  an  '  Open,  sesame ! '  wherever  he  goes. " 

"What  atrocious  tobacco  this  is  of  yours,  Buller!"  said 
I,  taking  a  cigar  from  his  case  as  it  lay  on  the  table.  "I 
suppose  that  you  small  fry  of  diplomacy  cannot  get  things 
in  duty  free,  eh  ?  " 

"Try  this  cheroot;  you  '11  find  it  better,"  said  he,  opening 
a  secret  pocket  in  the  case. 

"Nothing  to  boast  of,"  said  I,  puffing  away,  while  he 
continued  to  fill  up  the  blanks  in  my  passport. 

"Would  you  like  an  introduction  to  my  brother?  He  's 
on  the  Government  staff  there,  and  knows  every  one.  He  's 
a  jolly  sort  of  fellow,  besides,  and  you  '11  get  on  well 
together." 

"I  don't  care  if  I  do,"  said  I,  carelessly;  "though,  as  a 


388  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

rule,  your  red-coat  is  very  bad  style,  —  flippant  without 
smartness,  and  familiar  without  ease." 

*' Severe,  Potts,  but  not  altogether  unjust;  but  you '11  find 
George  above  the  average  of  his  class,  and  I  think  you  '11 
like  him." 

"Don't  let  him  ask  me  to  his  mess,"  said  I,  with  an  inso- 
lent drawl.  "That's  an  amount  of  boredom  I  could  not 
submit  to.     Caution  him  to  make  no  blunder  of  that  kind." 

He  looked  up  at  me  with  a  strange  twinkle  in  his  eyes, 
which  I  could  not  interpret.  He  was  either  in  intense 
enjoyment  of  my  smartness,  or  Heaven  knows  what  other 
sentiment  then  moved  him.  At  all  events,  I  was  in  ecstasy 
at  the  success  of  my  newly  discovered  vein,  and  walked  the 
room,  humming  a  tune,  as  he  wrote  the  letter  that  was  to 
present  me  to  his  brother. 

"Why  had  I  never  hit  upon  this  plan  before?  "  thought  I. 
"How  was  it  that  it  had  not  occurred  that  the  maxim  of 
homoeopathy  is  equally  true  in  morals  as  in  medicine,  and 
that  similia  similihus  curantur !  So  long  as  I  was  meek, 
humble,  and  submissive,  Buller's  impertinent  presumption 
only  increased  at  every  moment.  With  every  fresh  conces- 
sion of  mine  he  continued  to  encroach,  and  now  that  I  had 
adopted  his  own  strategy,  and  attacked,  he  fell  back  at 
once."  I  was  proud,  very  proud  of  my  discovery.  It  is  a 
new  contribution  to  that  knowledge  of  life  which,  notwith- 
standing all  my  disasters,  I  believed  to  be  essentially  my 
gift. 

At  last  he  finished  his  note,  folded,  sealed,  and  directed 
it,  — "The  Hon.  George  Buller,  A.D.C.,  Government  House, 
Malta,  favored  by  Algernon  Sydney  Potts,  Esq." 

"Isn't  that  all  right?"  asked  he,  pointing  to  my  name. 
"I  was  within  an  ace  of  writing  Hampden-Russell  too." 
And  he  laughed  at  his  own  very  meagre  jest. 

"I  hope  you  have  merely  made  this  an  introduction?" 
said  I. 

"  Nothing  more ;  but  why  so  ?  " 

"Because  it's  just  as  likely  that  I  never  present  it!  I 
am  the  slave  of  the  humor  I  find  myself  in,  and  I  rarely 
do  anything  that  costs  me  the  slightest  effort."  I  said  this 
with  a  close  and,  indeed,   a  servile  imitation   of   Charles 


A  VISIT  FROM  THE  HON.  GREY  BULLER.  389 

Matthews  in  "Used  Up ;  "  but  it  was  a  grand  success,  and 
Buller  was  palpably  vanquished. 

''Well,  for  George's  sake,  I  hope  your  mood  may  be  the 
favorable  one.  Is  there  anything  more  I  can  do  for  you? 
Can  you  think  of  nothing  wherein  I  may  be  serviceable  ?  " 

''Nothing.  Stay,  I  rather  think  our  people  at  home  might 
with  propriety  show  my  old  friend  Hirsch  here  some  mark 
of  attention  for  his  conduct  towards  me.  I  don't  know 
whether  they  give  a  C.B.  for  that  sort  of  thing,  but  a  sum, 
—  a  handsome  sum,  —  something  to  mark  the  service,  and 
the  man  to  whom  it  was  rendered.  Don't  you  think  '  we  * 
could  manage  that?'* 

"I  '11  see  what  can  be  done.     I  don't  despair  of  success." 

"As  for  your  share  in  the  affair,  Buller,  I  '11  take  care 
that  it  shall  be  mentioned  in  the  proper  quarter.  If  I  have 
a  characteristic,  —  my  friends  say  I  have  many,  —  but  if 
I  have  one,  it  is  that  I  never  forget  the  most  trifling  service 
of  the  humblest  of  those  who  have  aided  me.  You  are 
young,  and  have  your  way  to  make  in  life.  Go  back, 
therefore,  and  carry  with  you  the  reflection  that  Potts  is 
your  friend." 

I  saw  he  was  affected  at  this,  for  he  covered  his  face  with 
his  handkerchief  and  turned  away,  and  for  some  seconds 
his  shoulders  moved  convulsively. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  with  a  struggle  to  become  humble,  "there 
are  richer  men,  there  are  men  more  influential  by  family 
ties  and  connections,  there  are  men  who  occupy  a  more  con- 
spicuous position  before  the  public  eye,  there  are  men  who 
exercise  a  wider  sway  in  the  world  of  politics  and  party ; 
but  this  I  will  say,  that  there  is  not  one  —  no,  not  one  — 
individual  in  the  British  dominions  who,  when  you  come  to 
consider  either  the  difficulties  he  has  overcome,  the  strength 
of  the  prejudices  he  has  conquered,  the  totally  unassisted  and 
unaided  struggle  he  has  had  to  maintain  against  not  alone 
the  errors,  for  errors  are  human,  but  still  worse,  the  ungen- 
erous misconceptions,  the  —  I  will  go  further,  and  call  them 
the  wilful  misrepresentations  of  those  who,  from  education 
and  rank  and  condition,  might  be  naturally  supposed  — 
indeed,  confidently  affirmed  to  be  —  to  be  —  " 

I  am  certain  of  it!  "  cried  he,  grasping  my  hand,  and 


i(- 


390  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

rescuing  me  from  a  situation  very  like  smothering,  —  "I 
am  certain  of  it!  "  And  with  a  hurried  salutation,  for  his 
feelings  were  evidently  overcoming  him,  he  burst  away, 
and  descended  the  stairs  five  steps  at  a  time ;  and  although 
I  was  sorry  he  had  not  waited  till  I  finished  my  peroration, 
I  was  really  glad  that  the  act  had  ended  and  the  curtain 
fallen. 

''What  a  deal  of  bad  money  passes  current  in  this  world," 
said  I,  as  I  was  alone;  "and  what  a  damper  it  is  upon 
honest  industry  to  think  how  easy  it  is  to  eke  out  life  with 
a  forgery ! " 

"What  do  you  say  to  a  dinner  with  me  at  the  '  Swan  '  in 
Innspruck,  Potts  ?  *'  cried  out  Buller,  from  the  courtyard. 

"Excuse  me,  I  mean  to  eat  my  last  cutlet  here,  with  my 
old  jailer.  It  will  be  an  event  for  the  poor  fellow  as  long 
as  he  lives.     Good-bye,  and  a  safe  journey  to  you." 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

MY   CANDID    AVOWAL   TO   KATE   HERBERT. 

I  WAS  now  bound  for  the  first  port  in  the  Mediterranean 
from  which  I  could  take  ship  for  Malta ;  and  the  better  to 
carry  out  my  purpose,  I  resolved  never  to  make  acquaint- 
ance with  any  one,  or  be  seduced  by  any  companionship, 
till  I  had  seen  Miss  Herbert,  and  given  her  the  message  I 
was  charged  with.  This  time,  at  least,  I  would  be  a  faith- 
ful envoy ;  at  least,  as  faithful  as  a  man  might  be  who  had 
gone  to  sleep  over  his  credentials  for  a  twelvemonth.  And 
so  I  reached  Maltz,  and  took  my  place  by  diligence  over  the 
Stelvio  down  to  Lecco,  never  trusting  myself  with  even  the 
very  briefest  intercourse  with  my  fellow-travellers,  and 
suffering  them  to  indulge  in  the  humblest  estimate  of  me, 
morally  and  intellectually,  —  all  that  I  might  be  true  to  my 
object  and  firm  to  my  fixed  purpose.  For  the  first  time  in 
my  life  I  tried  to  present  myself  in  an  unfavorable  aspect, 
and  I  was  astonished  to  find  the  experiment  by  no  means 
unpleasing,  the  reason  being,  probably,  that  it  was  an  emi- 
nent success.  I  began  to  see  how  the  surly  people  are 
such  acute  philosophers  in  life,  and  what  a  deal  of  selfish 
gratification  they  must  derive  from  their  uncurbed  ill- 
humor.  I  reached  Genoa  in  time  to  catch  a  steamer  for 
Malta.  It  was  crowded,  and  with  what,  in  another  mood, 
I  might  have  called  pleasant  people;  but  I  held  myself 
estranged  and  aloof  from  all.  I  could  mark  many  an 
impertinent  allusion  to  my  cold  and  distant  manner,  and 
could  see  that  a  young  sub  on  his  way  to  join  was  even 
witty  at  the  expense  of  my  retiring  disposition.  The  crea- 
ture. Groves  he  was  called,  used  to  try  to  "trot  me  out,"  as 
he  phrased  it;  but  I  maintained  both  my  resolve  and  my 
temper,  and  gave  him  no  triumph. 


392  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

I  was  almost  sorry  on  the  morning  we  dropped  anchoi 
in  the  harbor.  The  sense  of  doing  something,  anything, 
with  a  firm  persistence,  had  given  me  cheerfulness  and 
courage.  However,  I  had  now  a  task  of  some  nicety  be- 
fore me,  and  addressed  myself  at  once  to  its  discharge. 
At  the  hotel  I  learned  that  the  cottage  inhabited  by  Mrs. 
Keats  was  in  a  small  nook  of  one  of  the  bays,  and  only  an 
easy  walk  from  the  town ;  and  so  I  despatched  a  messenger 
at  once  with  Miss  Crof ton's  note  to  Miss  Herbert,  enclosed 
in  a  short  one  from  myself,  to  know  if  she  would  permit  me 
to  wait  upon  her,  with  reference  to  the  matter  in  the  letter. 
I  spoke  of  myself  in  the  third  person  and  as  the  bearer  of 
the  letter. 

While  I  was  turning  over  the  letters  and  papers  in  my 
writing-desk,  awaiting  her  reply,  I  came  upon  Buller's  note 
to  his  brother,  and,  without  any  precise  idea  why,  I  sent  it 
by  a  servant  to  the  Government  House,  with  my  card.  It 
was  completely  without  a  purpose  that  I  did  so,  and  if  my 
reader  has  not  experienced  moments  of  the  like  "inconse- 
quence," I  should  totally  break  down  in  attempting  to  ac- 
count for  their  meaning. 

Miss  Herbert's  reply  came  back  promptly.  She  requested 
that  the  writer  of  the  note  she  had  just  read  would  favor  her 
with  a  visit  at  his  earliest  convenience. 

I  set  forth  immediately.  What  a  strange  and  thrilling 
sensation  it  is  when  we  take  up  some  long-dropped  link  in 
life,  go  back  to  some  broken  thread  of  our  existence,  and 
try  to  attach  it  to  the  present!  We  feel  young  again  in 
the  bygone,  and  yet  far  older  even  than  our  real  age  in  the 
thought  of  the  changes  time  has  wrought  upon  us  in  the 
meanwhile.  A  week  or  so  before  I  had  looked  with  impa- 
tience for  this  meeting,  and  now  I  grew  very  faint-hearted 
as  the  moment  drew  nigh.  The  only  way  I  could  summon 
courage  for  the  occasion  was  by  thinking  that  in  the  mis- 
sion intrusted  to  me  /was  actually  nothing.  There  were 
incidents  and  events  not  one  of  which  touched  me,  and  I 
should  pass  away  off  the  scene  when  our  interview  was 
over,  and  be  no  more  remembered  by  her. 

It  was  evident  that  the  communication  had  engaged  her 
attention  to  some  extent  by  the  promptitude  of  her  mes- 


MY  CANDID  AVOWAL  TO  KATE  HERBERT.        393 

sage  to  me ;  and  with  this  thought  I  crossed  the  little  lawn, 
and  rang  the  bell  at  the  door. 

"The  gentleman  expected  by  Miss  Herbert,  sir?"  asked 
a  smart  English  maid.  "Come  this  way,  sir.  She  will  see 
you  in  a  few  minutes." 

I  had  fully  ten  minutes  to  inspect  the  details  of  a  pretty 
little  drawing-room,  one  of  those  little  female  temples 
where  scattered  drawings  and  books  and  music,  and,  above 
all,  the  delicious  odor  of  fresh  flowers,  all  harmonize  to- 
gether, and  set  you  a-thinking  how  easily  life  could  glide 
by  with  such  appliances  were  they  only  set  in  motion  by 
the  touch  of  the  enchantress  herself.  The  door  opened  at 
last,  but  it  was  the  maid ;  she  came  to  say  that  Mrs.  Keats 
was  very  poorly  that  day,  and  Miss  Herbert  could  not  leave 
her  at  that  moment ;  and  if  it  were  not  perfectly  convenient 
to  the  gentleman  to  wait,  she  begged  to  know  when  it  would 
suit  him  to  call  again? 

"As  for  me,"  said  I,  "I  have  come  to  Malta  solely  on 
this  matter ;  pray  say  that  I  will  wait  as  long  as  she  wishes. 
I  am  completely  at  her  orders." 

I  strolled  out  after  this  through  one  of  the  windows  that 
opened  on  the  lawn,  and,  gaining  the  seaside,  I  sat  down 
upon  a  rock  to  bide  her  coming.  I  might  have  sat  about 
half  an  hour  thus,  when  I  heard  a  rapid  step  approaching, 
and  I  had  just  time  to  arise  when  Miss  Herbert  stood  before 
me.  She  started  back,  and  grew  pale,  very  pale,  as  she 
recognized  me,  and  for  fully  a  minute  there  we  both  stood, 
unable  to  speak  a  word. 

"Am  I  to  understand,  sir,"  said  she,  at  last,  "that  you 
are  the  bearer  of  this  letter?  "  And  she  held  it  open  towards 
me. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  with  a  great  effort  at  collectedness.  "I 
have  much  to  ask  your  forgiveness  for.  It  is  fully  a  year 
since  I  was  charged  to  place  that  in  your  hands,  but  one 
mischance  after  another  has  befallen  me;  not  to  own  that 
in  my  own  purposeless  mode  of  life  I  have  had  no  enemy 
worse  than  my  fate." 

"I  have  heard  something  of  your  fondness  for  adventure," 
said  she,  with  a  strange  smile  that  blended  a  sort  of  pity 
with  a  gentle  irony.     "After  we  parted  company  at  Schaff- 


394  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

hausen,  I  believe  you  travelled  for  feome  time  on  foot?  We 
heard,  at  least,  that  you  took  a  fancy  to  explore  a  mode 
of  life  few  persons  have  penetrated,  or,  at  least,  few  of  your 
rank  and  condition." 

•'May  T  ask,  what  do  you  believe  that  rank  and  condition 
to  be,  Miss  Herbert?"  asked  I,  firmly. 

She  blushed  deeply  at  this ;  perhaps  I  was  too  abrupt  in 
the  way  I  spoke,  and  I  hastened  to  add,  — 

''When  I  offered  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  letter  you  have 
just  read,  I  was  moved  by  another  wish  than  merely  to 
render  you  some  service.  I  wanted  to  tell  you,  once  for 
all,  that  if  I  lived  for  a  while  in  a  fiction  land  of  my  own 
invention,  with  day-dreams  and  fancies,  and  hopes  and 
ambitions  all  unreal,  I  have  come  to  pay  the  due  penalty  of 
my  deceit,  and  confess  that  nothing  can  be  more  humble 
than  I  am  in  birth,  station,  or  fortune,  —  my  father  an 
apothecary,  my  name  Potts,  my  means  a  very  few  pounds 
in  the  world ;  and  yet,  with  all  that  avowal,  I  feel  prouder 
now  that  I  have  made  it,  than  ever  I  did  in  the  false 
assumption  of  some  condition  I  had  no  claim  to." 

She  held  out  her  hand  to  me  with  such  a  significant  air  of 
approval,  and  smiled  so  good-naturedly,  that  I  could  not 
help  pressing  it  to  my  lips,  and  kissing  it  rapturously. 

Taking  a  seat  at  my  side,  and  with  a  voice  meant  to 
recall  me  to  a  quiet  and  business-like  demeanor,  she  asked 
me  to  read  over  Miss  Crof ton's  letter.  I  told  her  that  I 
knew  every  line  of  it  by  heart,  and,  more  still,  I  knew  the 
whole  story  to  which  it  related.  It  was  a  topic  that  required 
the  nicest  delicacy  to  touch  on,  but  with  a  frankness  that 
charmed  me,  she  said,  — 

"You  have  had  the  candor  to  tell  me  freely  your  story; 
let  me  imitate  you,  and  reveal  mine. 

"You  know  who  we  are,  and  whence  we  have  sprung; 
that  my  father  was  a  simple  laborer  on  a  line  of  railroad, 
and  by  dint  of  zeal  and  intelligence,  and  an  energy  that 
would  not  be  balked  or  impeded,  that  he  raised  himself  to 
station  and  affluence.  You  have  heard  of  his  connection 
with  Sir  Elkanah  Crofton,  and  how  unfortunately  it  was 
broken  off ;  but  you  cannot  know  the  rest,  —  that  is,  you 
cannot  know  what  we  alone  know,  and  what  is  not  so  much 


MY  CANDID  AVOWAL  TO   KATE   HERBERT.         395 

as  suspected  by  others ;  and  of  this  I  can  scarcely  dare  to 
speak,  since  it  is  essentially  the  secret  of  my  family." 

I  guessed  at  once  to  what  she  alluded;  her  troubled 
manner,  her  swimming  eyes,  and  her  quivering  voice,  all 
betraying  that  she  referred  to  the  mystery  of  her  father's 
fate ;  while  I  doubted  within  myself  whether  it  were  right 
and  fitting  for  me  to  acknowledge  that  I  knew  the  secret 
soucre  of  her  anxiety,  she  relieved  me  from  my  embarrass- 
ment by  continuing  thus,  — 

"Your  kind  and  generous  friends  have  not  suffered  them- 
selves to  be  discouraged  by  defeat.  They  have  again  and 
again  renewed  their  proposals  to  my  mother,  only  varying 
the  mode,  in  the  hope  that  by  some  stratagem  they  might 
overcome  her  reasons  for  refusal.  Now,  though  this  rejec- 
tion, so  persistent  as  it  is,  may  seem  ungracious,  it  is  not 
without  a  fitting  and  substantial  cause." 

Again  she  faltered,  and  grew  confused,  and  now  I  saw 
how  she  struggled  between  a  natural  reserve  and  an  impulse 
to  confide  the  sorrow  that  oppressed  her  to  one  who  might 
befriend  her. 

"You  may  speak  freely  to  me,"  said  I,  at  last.  "I  am 
not  ignorant  of  the  mystery  you  hint  at.  Crofton  has  told 
me  what  many  surmise  and  some  freely  believe  in." 

"But  we  know  it,  — know  it  for  a  certainty,"  cried  she, 
clasping  my  hand  in  her  eagerness.  "It  is  no  longer  a  sur- 
mise or  a  suspicion.  It  is  a  certainty, —  a  fact!  Two  letters 
in  his  handwriting  have  reached  my  mother,  —  one  from 
St.  Louis,  in  America,  where  he  had  gone  first ;  the  second 
from  an  Alpine  village,  where  he  was  laid  up  in  sickness. 
He  had  had  a  terrible  encounter  with  a  man  who  had  done 
him  some  gross  wrong,  and  he  was  wounded  in  the  shoulder ; 
after  which  he  had  to  cross  the  Rhine,  wading  or  swim- 
ming, and  travel  many  miles  ere  he  could  find  shelter. 
When  he  wrote,  however,  he  was  rapidly  recovering,  and  as 
quickly  regaining  all  his  old  courage  and  daring.'* 

"And  from  that  time  forward  have  you  had  no  tidings  of 
him?" 

"Nothing  but  a  check  on  a  Russian  banker  in  London  to 
pay  to  my  mother's  order  a  sum  of  money,  —  a  considerable 
one,  too ;  and  although  she  hoped  to  gain  some  clew  to  him 


396  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

through  this,  she  could  not  succeed,  nor  have  we  now  any 
trace  of  him  whatever.  I  ought  to  mention,"  said  she,  as 
if  catching  up  a  forgotten  thread  in  her  narrative,  "that  in 
his  last  letter  he  enjoined  my  mother  not  to  receive  any 
payment  from  the  assurance  company,  nor  enter  into  any 
compromise  with  them ;  and,  above  all,  to  live  in  the  hope 
that  we  should  meet  again  and  be  happy." 

"And  are  you  still  ignorant  of  where  he  now  is?  " 

"We  only  know  that  a  cousin  of  mine,  an  officer  of 
engineers  at  Aden,  heard  of  an  Englishman  being  engaged 
by  the  Shah  of  Persia  to  report  on  certain  silver  mines  at 
Kashan,  and  from  all  he  could  learn,  the  description  would 
apply  to  him.  My  cousin  had  obtained  leave  of  absence 
expressly  to  trace  him,  and  promised  in  his  last  letter  to 
bring  me  himself  any  tidings  he  might  procure  here  to 
Malta.  Indeed,  when  I  learned  that  a  stranger  had  asked 
to  see  me,  I  was  full  sure  it  was  my  cousin  Harry." 

Was  it  that  her  eyes  grew  darker  in  color  as  this  name 
escaped,  her  was  it  that  a  certain  tremor  shook  her  voice, 
or  was  it  the  anxiety  of  my  own  jealous  humor  that  made 
me  wretched  as  I  heard  of  that  cousin  Harry,  now  men- 
tioned for  the  first  time? 

"What  reparation  can  I  make  you  for  so  blank  a  dis- 
appointment?" said  I,  with  a  sad,  half-bitter  tone. 

"Be  the  same  kind  friend  that  he  would  have  proved 
himself  if  it  had  been  his  fortune  to  have  come  first,"  said 
she;  and  though  she  spoke  calmly,  she  blushed  deeply! 
"Here,"  said  she,  hurriedly,  taking  a  small  printed  para- 
graph from  a  letter,  and  eagerly,  as  it  seemed,  trying  to 
recover  her  former  manner,  — "here  is  a  slip  I  have  cut  out 
of  the  '  Levant  Herald. '  I  found  it  about  two  months  since. 
It  ran  thus:  '  The  person  who  had  contracted  for  the  works 
at  Pera,  and  who  now  turns  out  to  be  an  Englishman,  is 
reported  to  have  had  a  violent  altercation  yesterday  with 
Musted  Pasha,  in  consequence  of  which  he  has  thrown  up 
his  contract,  and  demanded  his  passport  for  Russia.  It  is 
rumored  here  that  the  Russian  ambassador  is  no  stranger 
to  this  rupture. '  Vague  as  this  is,  I  feel  persuaded  that  he 
is  the  person  alluded  to,  and  that  it  is  from  Constantinople 
we  must  trace  him." 


MY  CANDID  AVOWAL  TO  KATE   HERBERT.         397 

"Well,"  cried  I,  "I  am  ready.     I  will  set  out  at  once." 

"Oh!  can  I  believe  you  will  do  us  this  great  service?" 
cried  she,  with  swimming  eyes  and  clasped  hands. 

''This  time  you  will  find  me  faithful,"  said  I,  gravely. 
"He  who  has  said  and  done  so  many  foolish  things  as  I 
have,  must,  by  one  good  action,  give  bail  for  his  future 
character." 

"You  are  a  true  friend,  and  you  have  all  my  confidence." 

"Mrs.  Keats's  compliments,  miss,"  said  the  maid  at  this 
moment,  "and  hopes  the  gentleman  will  stay  to  dinner  with 
you,  though  she  cannot  come  down  herself." 

"She  imagines  you  are  my  cousin,  whom  she  is  aware  I 
have  been  expecting,"  said  Miss  Herbert,  in  a  whisper,  and 
evidently  appearing  uncertain  how  to  act. 

"Oh!  "  said  I,  with  an  anguish  I  could  not  repress,  "would 
that  I  could  change  my  lot  with  his !  " 

"Very  well,  Mary,"  said  Miss  Herbert;  "thank  your 
mistress  from  me,  and  say  the  gentleman  accepts  her  invita- 
tion with  pleasure.  Is  it  too  much  presumption  on  my  part, 
air,  to  say  so?  "  said  she,  with  a  low  whisper,  while  a  half- 
malicious  twinkle  lit  up  her  eyes,  and  1  could  not  speak 
with  happiness. 

Determined,  however,  to  give  an  earnest  of  my  zeal  in 
her  cause,  I  declared  I  would  at  once  return  to  the  town, 
and  learn  when  the  first  packet  sailed  for  Constantinople. 
The  dinner  hour  was  seven,  so  that  I  had  fully  five  hours 
yet  to  make  my  inquiries  ere  we  met  at  table.  I  wondered 
at  myself  how  business-like  and  practical  I  had  become; 
but  a  strong  impulse  now  impelled  me,  and  seemed  to  add  a 
sort  of  strength  to  my  whole  nature. 

"As  Cousin  Harry  is  the  mirror  of  punctuality,  and  you 
now  represent  him,  Mr.  Potts,"  said  she,  shaking  my  hand, 
*'pray  remember  not  to  be  later  than  seven." 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

CAPTAIN   ROGERS    STANDS   MY   FRIEND. 

"Constantinople,  Odessa,  and  the  Levant.  —  The  'Cyclops,' 
five  hundred  horse-power,  to  sail  on  Wednesday  morning,  at  eight 
o'clock.  For  freight  or  passage  apply  to  Captain  Robert  B.  Rogers.** 

This  anDOuncement,  which  I  found  amidst  a  great  many 
others  in  a  frame  over  the  fireplace  in  the  coffee-room,  struck 
me  forcibly,  first  of  all,  because,  not  belonging  to  the  regular 
mail-packets,  it  suggested  a  cheap  passage ;  and,  secondly, 
it  promised  an  early  departure,  and  the  vessel  was  to  sail  on 
the  very  next  morning,  an  amount  of  promptitude  that  I  felt 
would  gratify  Miss  Herbert. 

Now,  although  I  had  been  living  for  a  considerable  time 
back  at  the  cost  of  the  Imperial  House  of  Hapsburg,  my 
resources  for  such  an  expedition  as  was  opening  before  me 
were  of  the  most  slender  kind.  I  made  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  all  my  worldly  wealth,  and  it  amounted  to  the  sum  of 
forty-three  pounds  some  odd  shillings.  On  terra  firma  I 
could,  of  course,  economize  to  any  extent.  With  self-denial 
and  resolution  I  could  live  on  very  little.  Life  in  the  East, 
I  had  often  heard,  was  singularly  cheap  and  inexpensive. 
All  I  had  read  of  Oriental  habits  in  the  ''  Arabian  Nights  " 
and  "  Tales  of  the  Genii,"  assured  me  that  with  a  few 
dates  and  a  watermelon  a  man  dined  fully  as  well  as  need 
be  ;  and  the  delicious  warmth  of  the  climate  rendered  shelter 
a  complete  superfluity.  Before  forming  anything  like  a  cor- 
rect budget,  I  must  ascertain  what  would  be  the  cost  of  my 
passage  to  Constantinople,  and  so  I  rang  for  the  waiter  to 
direct  me  to  the  address  of  the  advertiser. 

''That's  the  captain  yonder,  sir,"  whispered  the  waiter; 
and  he  pointed  to  a  stout,  weather-beaten  man,  who,  with  his 


CAPTAIN  ROGERS  STANDS  MY  FRIEND.  399 

hands  in  the  pockets  of  his  pilot-coat,  was  standing  in  front 
of  the  fire,  smoking  a  cigar. 

Although  I  had  never  seen  him  before,  the  features 
reminded  me  of  some  one  I  had  met  with,  and  suddenly  I 
bethought  me  of  the  skipper  with  whom  I  had  sailed  from 
Ireland  for  Milford,  and  who  had  given  me  a  letter  for  his 
brother  ''  Bob,'*  —  the  very  Robert  Rogers  now  before  me. 

"  Do  you  know  this  handwriting,  Captain?  "  said  I,  draw- 
ing the  letter  from  my  pocket-book. 

''  That's  my  brother  Joe's,"  said  he,  not  offering  to  take 
the  letter  from  my  hand,  or  removing  the  cigar  from  his 
mouth,  but  talking  with  all  the  unconcern  in  life.  ''  That's 
Joe's  own  scrawl,  and  there  ain't  a  worse  from  this  to 
himself." 

**The  letter  is  for  you,"  said  I,  rather  offended  at  his 
coolness. 

"  So  I  see.  Stick  it  up  there,  over  the  chimney ;  Joe  has 
never  anything  to  say  that  won't  keep." 

"  It  is  a  letter  of  introduction,  sir,"  said  I,  still  more 
haughtily. 

"And  what  if  it  be?  Won't  that  keep?  Who  is  it  to 
introduce  ?  " 

"  The  humble  individual  before  you.  Captain  Rogers." 

''So,  that's  it!"  said  he,  slowly.  "Well,  read  it  out 
for  me ;  for,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  there  's  no  harder  naviga- 
tion to  me  than  one  of  Joe's  scrawls." 

"  I  believe  I  can  master  it,"  said  I,  opening  and  reading 
what  originally  had  been  composed  and  drawn  up  by  myself. 
When  I  came  to  "  Algernon  Sydney  Potts,  a  man  so  com- 
pletely after  your  own  heart,"  he  drew  his  cigar  from  his 
mouth,  and,  laying  his  hand  on  my  shoulder,  turned  me 
slowly  around  till  the  light  fell  full  upon  me. 

"  No,  Joseph,"  said  he,  deliberately,  "not  a  bit  of  it,  my 
boy.     This  ain't  my  sort  of  chap  at  all ! " 

I  almost  choked  with  anger,  but  somehow  there  was  such 
an  apparent  earnestness  in  the  man,  and  such  a  total  absence 
of  all  wish  to  offend,  that  I  read  on  to  the  end. 

"Well,"  said  he,  as  I  concluded,  "he  usedn't  to  be  so 
wordy  as  that.  I  wonder  what  came  over  him.  Mayhap  he 
was  n't  well." 


400  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

What  a  comment  on  a  style  that  might  have  adorned  the 
Correct  Letter  Writer! 

"He  was,  on  the  contrary,  in  the  enjoyment  of  perfect 
health,  sir,"  said  I,  tartly. 

"All  I  can  pick  out  of  it  is,  I  ain't  to  offer  you  any 
money  ;  and  as  there  is  n't  any  direction  easier  to  follow,  nor 
pleasanter  to  obey,  here 's  my  hand  !  "  And  he  wrung  mine 
with  a  grip  that  would  have  flattened  a  chain  cable. 

"What's  your  line,  here?  You  ain't  sodgering,  are 
you?" 

"No;  I'm  travelling,  for  pleasure,  for  information,  for 
pastime,  as  one  might  say." 

"  In  the  general  do-nothing  and  careless  line  of  business? 
That  ain't  mine.  No,  by  jingo  !  I  don't  eat  my  fish  without 
catching,  ay,  and  salting  them  too,  I  ain't  ashamed  to  say. 
I'm  captain,  supercargo,  and  pilot  of  my  own  craft;  take 
every  lunar  that  is  taken  aboard.  I  've  writ  every  line  that 
ever  is  writ  in  the  log-book,  and  I  vaccinated  every  man  and 
boy  aboard  for  the  natural  small-pox  with  these  fingers  and 
this  tool  that  you  see  here !  "  And  he  produced  an  old  and 
very  rusty  instrument  of  veterinary  surgery  from  his  vest- 
pocket,  where  it  lay  with  copper  money,  tobacco  quids,  and 
lucifer  matches. 

I  quickly  remembered  the  character  for  inordinate  boast- 
fulness  his  brother  had  given  me,  and  of  which  he  thus, 
without  any  provocation  on  my  part,  afforded  me  a  slight 
specimen.  Now,  perhaps,  at  this  stage  of  my  narrative,  I 
might  never  have  alluded  to  him  at  all,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
opportunity  it  gives  me  of  recording  how  nobly  and  how 
resolutely  I  resisted  what  may  be  called  the  most  trying 
temptation  of  human  nature.  An  inveterate  dram-drinker 
has  been  known  to  turn  away  from  the  proffered  glass ;  an 
incurable  gambler  has  been  seen  to  decline  the  invitation  to 
"  cut  in;  "  dignitaries  of  the  church  have  begged  off  being 
made  bishops ;  but  is  there  any  mention  in  history  of  an 
anecdote-monger  suffering  himself  to  be  patiently  van- 
quished, and  retiring  from  the  field  without  firing  off  at  least 
an  "  incident  that  occurred  to  himself"?  If  ever  a  man  was 
sorely  tried,  /  was.  Here  was  this  coarsel}^  minded  vulgar 
dog,   with  nothing   pictorial  or  imaginative  in  his  nature, 


CAPTAIN  ROGERS  STANDS  MY  FRIEND.  401 

heaping  story  upon  story  of  his  own  feats  and  achievements, 
in  which  not  one  solitary  situation  ever  suggested  an  interest 
or  awakened  an  anxiety ;  and  I,  who  could  have  shot  my 
tigers,  crippled  my  leopards,  hamstrung  my  lionesses,  res- 
cued men  from  drowning,  and  women  from  fire,  —  with  little 
life  touches  to  thrill  the  heart  and  force  tears  from  the  eyes 
of  a  stock-broker,  —  I,  I  say,  had  to  stand  there  and  listen  in 
silence  !  Watching  a  creature  banging  away  at  a  target  that 
he  never  hit,  with  an  old  flint  musket,  while  you  held  in  your 
hand  a  short  Enfield  that  would  have  driven  the  ball  through 
the  bull's  eye,  is  nothing  to  this ;  and  to  tell  the  truth,  it 
nearly  choked  me.  Twice  I  had  to  cough  down  the  words, 
*'  Now  let  me  mention  a  personal  fact."  But  I  did  succeed, 
and  I  am  proud  to  say  I  only  grew  very  red  in  the  face,  and 
felt  that  singing  noise  in  the  ears  and  general  state  of  muddle 
that  forebodes  a  fit.  But  I  rallied,  and  said  in  a  voice,  slow 
from  the  dignity  of  a  self-conquest,  — 

' '  Can  you  take  me  as  a  passenger  to  Constantinople  ?  " 

"To  Constantinople?  Ay,  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  to  Point 
de  Galle,  to  Cochin  China,  to  Ross  River;  don't  think  to 
puzzle  me  with  navigation,  my  lad.'* 

"  Are  there  many  other  passengers?  " 

"  I  could  have  five  hundred,  if  I  'd  take  'em !  Put  Bob 
Rogers  on  a  placard,  and  see  what '11  happen.  If  I  said, 
'  I  'm  a-going  to  sea  on  a  plank  to-morrow,'  there  's  men 
would  rather  come  along  with  me  than  go  in  the  '  Queen '  or 
the  '  Hannibal.'  I  don't  say  they  're  right,  mind  ye ;  but  I 
won't  say  they  's  wrong,  neither." 

"  Oh,  why  did  n't  I  meet  this  wretch  when  I  was  a  child? 
Why  did  n't  my  father  find  a  Helot  like  this,  to  tell  lies 
before  me,  and  frighten  me  with  their  horrid  ugliness  ?  " 
This  was  the  thought  that  flashed  through  me  as  I  listened. 
I  felt,  besides,  that  such  stupid,  purposeless  inventions  cor- 
rupted and  blunted  the  taste  for  graceful  narrative,  just  in 
the  same  way  that  an  undeserving  recipient  of  charity  offends 
the  pleasure  of  real  benevolence. 

"May  I  ask.  Captain  Rogers,  what  is  the  fare?"  said  I, 
with  a  bland  courtesy. 

"That  depends  upon  the  man,  sir.  If  you  was  Ramsam 
Can-tanker-abad,  I  'd  say  five  hundred  gold  pagodas.     If 


402  A  DAY'S  BIDE. 

you  was  a  Cockney  stripling,  with  a  fresh-water  face,  and 
a  spunyarn  whisker,  I  'd  call  it  a  matter  of  seven  or  eight 
pound." 

"  And  you  sail  at  eight  ?  " 

''To  the  minute.  When  Bob  Rogers  says  eight  o'clock, 
the  first  turn  of  the  paddles  will  be  the  first  stroke  of  the 
hour. " 

"Then  book  me,  pray,  for  a  berth;  and,  for  surety's 
sake,  I'll  go  aboard  to-night." 

"Meet  me,  then,  here,  at  ten  o'clock,  and  I  '11  take  you 
off  in  my  gig,  an  honor  to  be  proud  on,  my  lad;  but  as 
Joe's  friend,  I'll  do  it." 

I  bowed  my  acknowledgments  and  went  off,  neither 
delighted  with  my  new  acquaintance,  nor  myself  for  the 
patience  I  had  shown  him.  After  all,  I  had  secured  an 
early  passage,  and  was  thus  able  to  show  Kate  Herbert 
that  I  was  not  going  to  let  the  grass  grow  under  my  feet 
this  time,  and  that  she  might  reckon  on  my  zeal  to  serve 
her  in  future.  As  I  retraced  my  road  to  the  cottage,  I 
forgot  all  about  Captain  Rogers,  and  only  thought  of  Kate, 
and  the  interests  that  were  hers.  It  was  next  to  a  certainty 
that  her  father  was  yet  alive;  but  how  to  find  him  in  a 
strange  land,  with  a  feigned  name,  and  most  probably  with 
every  aid  and  appliance  to  complete  his  disguisement!  It 
was,  doubtless,  a  noble  enterprise  to  devote  oneself  for  such 
as  she  was,  but  not  very  hopeful  withal;  and  then  I  went 
over  various  plans  for  my  future  guidance:  what  I  should 
do  if  I  fell  sick  ?  what  if  my  money  failed  me  ?  what  if  I 
were  waylaid  by  Arabs,  or  carried  away  to  some  fearful 
region  in  the  mountains,  and  made  to  feed  a  pet  alligator 
or  a  domestic  boa-constrictor?  I  hoped  sincerely  that  I 
was  overestimating  my  possible  perils,  but  it  was  wise  to 
give  a  large  margin  to  the  unknown ;  and  so  I  did  not  curb 
myself  in  the  least. 

As  I  entered  the  grounds,  the  night  was  falling,  and  I 
could  see  that  the  lamps  were  already  lighted  in  the 
drawing-room.  What  surprised  me,  however,  was  to  see 
a  very  smart  groom,  well  mounted,  and  leading  another 
horse  up  and  down  before  the  door.  There  was,  evidently, 
a  visitor  within,  and  I  felt  indisposed  to  enter  till  he  had 


CAPTAIN  ROGERS  STANDS  MY  FRIEND.  403 

gone  away.  My  curiosity,  however,  prompted  me  to  ask 
the  groom  the  name  of  his  master,  and  he  replied,  "  The 
Honorable  Captain  Buller." 

The  very  essence  of  all  jealousy  is  that  it  is  unreasoning. 
It  is  well  known  that  husbands  —  that  much-believing  and 
much-belied  class  —  always  suspect  every  one  but  the  right 
man ;  and  now,  without  the  faintest  clew  to  a  suspicion,  I 
grew  actually  sick  with  jealousy ! 

Nor  was  it  altogether  blamable  in  me,  for  as  I  looked 
through  the  uncurtained  window,  I  could  see  the  Captain,  a 
fine-looking,  rather  tigerish  sort  of  fellow,  standing  with 
his  back  to  the  fireplace,  while  he  talked  to  Miss  Herbert, 
who  sat  some  distance  off  at  a  work-table.  There  was  in 
his  air  that  amount  of  jaunty  ease  and  self-possession  that 
said,  ''I  'm  at  home  here;  in  this  fortress  I  hold  the  chief 
command."  There  was  about  him,  too,  the  tone  of  an 
assumed  superiority,  which,  when  displayed  by  a  man 
towards  a  woman,  takes  the  most  offensive  of  all  possible 
aspects. 

As  he  talked,  he  moved  at  last  towards  a  window,  and, 
opening  it,  held  out  his  hand  to  feel  if  it  were  raining. 

"I  hope,"  cried  he,  "you  '11  not  send  me  back  with  a 
refusal;  her  Ladyship  counts  upon  you  as  the  chief  orna- 
ment of  her  ball." 

**We  never  do  go  to  balls,  sir,"  was  the  dry  response. 

"But  make  this  occasion  the  exception.  If  you  only 
knew  how  lamentably  we  are  off  for  pretty  people,  you  'd 
pity  us.  Such  garrison  wives  and  daughters  are  unknown 
to  the  oldest  inhabitant  of  the  island.  Surely  Mrs.  Keats 
will  be  quite  well  by  Wednesday,  and  she  '11  not  be  so  cruel 
as  to  deny  you  to  us  for  this  once." 

"I  can  but  repeat  my  excuses,  — I  never  go  out." 

"If  you  say  so,  I  think  I'll  abandon  all  share  in  the 
enterprise.  It  was  a  point  of  honor  with  me  to  persuade 
you ;  in  fact,  I  pledged  myself  to  succeed,  and  if  you  really 
persist  in  a  refusal,  I  '11  just  pitch  all  these  notes  in  the  fire, 
and  go  off  yachting  till  the  whole  thing  is  over. "  And  with 
this  he  drew  forth  a  mass  of  notes  from  his  sabretache, 
and  proceeded  to  con  over  the  addresses:  '""  Mrs.  Hilyard,' 
*  Mr.  Barnes, '  '  Mr.  Clintosh, '  '  Lady  Bladgen. '     Oh,  Lady 


404  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

Blagden!  Why,  it  would  be  worth  while  coming  only  to  see 
her  and  Sir  John;  and  here  are  the  Crosbys  too;  and  what 
have  we  here!  Oh!  this  is  a  note  from  Grey.  You  don't 
know  my  brother  Grey,  —  he  'd  amuse  you  immensely.  Just 
listen  to  this,  by  way  of  a  letter  of  introduction:  — 

"  '  Dear  George,  —  Cherish  the  cove  that  will  hand  you  this 
note  as  the  most  sublime  Snob  I  have  ever  met  in  all  my  home  and 
foreign  experiences.  In  a  large  garrison  like  yours,  you  can  have  no 
difficulty  in  finding  fellows  to  give  him  a  field-day.  I  commit  him, 
therefore,  to  your  worthy  keeping,  to  dine  him,  draw  him  forth,  and 
pitch  him  out  of  the  window  when  you  've  done  with  him.  No 
harm  if  it  is  from  the  topmost  story  of  the  highest  barrack  in  Malta. 
His  name  is  Potts,  —  seriously  and  truthfully  Potts.  Birth,  parent- 
age, and  belongings  all  unknown  to 

"'Yours  ever,' 

" '  Grey  Buller.'  " 

"You  are  unfortunate,  sir,  in  confiding  your  correspond- 
ence to  me,"  said  Kate,  rising  from  her  seat,  "for  that 
gentleman  is  a  friend  —  a  sincere  and  valued  friend  —  of 
my  own,  and  you  could  scarcely  have  found  a  more  certain 
way  to  offend  me  than  to  speak  of  him  slightingly." 

"You  can't  mean  that  you  know  him  —  ever  met  him?  " 

"I  know  him  and  respect  him,  and  I  will  not  listen  to 
one  word  to  his  disparagement.  Nay,  more,  sir,  I  will  feel 
myself  at  liberty,  if  I  think  it  fitting,  to  tell  Mr.  Potts  the 
honorable  mode  in  which  your  brother  has  discharged  the 
task  of  an  introduction,  its  good  faith,  and  gentlemanlike 
feeling." 

"Pray,  let  us  have  him  at  the  mess  first.  Don't  spoil 
our  sport  till  we  have  at  least  one  evening  out  of  him." 

But  she  did  not  wait  for  him  to  finish  his  speech,  and  left 
the  room. 

It  is  but  fair  to  own  he  took  his  reverses  with  great 
coolness;  he  tightened  his  sword-belt,  set  his  cap  on  his 
head  before  the  glass,  stroked  down  his  moustache,  and 
then,  lighting  a  cigar,  swaggered  off  to  the  door  with  the 
lounging  swing  of  his  order. 

As  for  myself,  I  hastened  back  to  the  town,  and  with 
such  speed  that  I  traversed  the  mile  in  something  like  thir- 


CAPTAIN  ROGERS  STANDS  MY  FRIEND.  405 

teen  minutes.  I  had  no  very  clear  or  collected  plan  of 
action,  but  I  resolved  to  iask  Captain  Rogers  to  be  my 
friend,  and  see  me  through  this  conjuncture.  He  had  just 
dined  as  I  entered  the  coffee-room,  and  consented  to  have 
his  brandy-and-water  removed  to  my  bedroom  while  I 
opened  my  business  with  him. 

I  will  not,  at  this  eleventh  hour  of  revelations,  inflict  upon 
my  reader  the  details,  but  simply  be  satisfied  to  state  that 
I  found  the  skipper  far  more  practical  than  I  looked  for. 
He  evidently,  besides,  had  a  taste  for  these  sort  of  adven- 
tures, and  prided  himself  on  his  conduct  of  them.  "Go 
back  now,  and  eat  your  dinner  comfortably  with  your 
friends;  leave  everything  to  me,  and  I  promise  you  one 
thing,  —  the  *  Cyclops  '  shall  not  get  full  steam  up  till  we 
have  settled  this  small  transaction." 


CHAPTER  XLVIL 

MY   DUELLING   AMBITION   AGAIN   DISAPPOINTED. 

Though  I  was  a  few  minutes  late  for  dinner,  Miss  Herbert 
did  not  chide  me  for  delay.  She  was  charming  in  her  recep- 
tion of  me;  nor  was  the  fascination  diminished  to  me  by 
feeling  with  what  generous  warmth  she  had  defended  and 
upheld  me. 

There  is  a  marvellous  charm  in  the  being  defended  by 
one  you  love,  and  of  whose  kind  feeling  towards  you  you 
had  never  dared  to  assure  yourself  till  the  very  moment 
that  confirmed  it.  I  don't  know  if  I  ever  felt  in  such 
spirits  in  my  life.  Not  that  I  was  gay  or  light-hearted  so 
much  as  happy,  ^  happy  in  the  sense  of  a  self-esteem  I  had 
not  known  till  then.  And  what  a  spirit  of  cordial  famil- 
iarity was  there  now  between  us !  She  spoke  to  me  of  her 
daily  life,  its  habits  and  even  of  its  trials;  not  complain- 
ingly  nor  fretfully,  —  far  from  it,  —  but  in  a  way  to  imply 
that  these  were  the  burdens  meted  out  to  all,  and  that  none 
should  arrogantly  imagine  he  was  to  escape  the  lot  of  his 
fellows.  And  then  we  talked  of  the  Croftons,  of  whom  she 
was  curious  to  hear  details,  —  their  ages,  appearance,  man- 
ner, and  so  on ;  lastly,  how  I  came  to  know  them,  and  thus 
imperceptibly  led  me  to  tell  of  myself  and  of  my  story.  I 
am  sure  that  we  each  of  us  had  enough  of  care  upon  our 
hearts,  and  yet  none  would  have  ever  guessed  it  to  have  seen 
how  joyously  and  merrily  we  laughed  over  some  of  the 
incidents  of  my  checkered  career.  She  bantered  me,  too, 
on  the  feeble  and  wayward  impulses  by  which  I  had 
suffered  myself  to  be  moved,  and  gravely  asked  me,  had  I 
accomplished  any  single  one  of  all  the  objects  I  had  set 
before  my  mind  in  starting. 

Far  more  earnestly,  however,  did  we  discuss  the  future. 
She  heard  with  joy  that  I  had  already  secured  a  passage  for 


MY  DUELLING  AMBITION  AGAIN  DISAPPOINTED.      407 

Constantinople,  and  declared  that  she  could  not  dismiss 
from  her  mind  the  impression  that  I  was  destined  to  aid 
their  return  to  happiness  and  prosperity.  I  liked  the 
notion,  too,  of  there  being  a  fate  in  our  first  meeting;  a 
fate  in  that  acquaintanceship  with  the  Croftons,  which  gave 
the  occasion  to  seek  her  out  again;  and,  last  of  all,  if  it 
might  be  so,  a  fate  in  the  influence  I  was  to  exercise  over 
their  fortunes.  I  was  so  absorbed  in  these  pleasant  themes 
that  I,  with  as  little  of  the  lion  in  my  heart  as  any  man 
breathing,  never  once  thought  of  the  quarrel  and  its  impend- 
ing consequences.  How  my  heart  beat  as  her  soft  breath 
fanned  me  while  she  spoke !  As  she  was  telling  me  when 
and  from  whence  I  was  to  write  to  her,  the  servant  came  to 
say  that  a  gentleman  outside  begged  to  see  Mr.  Potts.  I 
hurried  to  the  hall. 

"Not  come  to  disturb  you.  Potts,"  said  the  skipper,  in  a 
brisk  tone;  "only  thought  it  best  to  make  your  mind  easy. 
It 'sail  right." 

"A  thousand  thanks,  Captain,"  said  I,  warmly.  "I 
knew  when  the  negotiation  was  in  your  hands  it  would 
be  so." 

"Yes;  his  friend,  a  Major  Coles  by,  boggled  a  bit  at 
first.  Could  n't  see  the  thing  in  the  light  I  put  it.  Asked 
very  often  '  who  were  you  ? '  asked,  too,  '  who  I  was  ?  *  Good 
that !  it  made  me  laugh.  Rather  late  in  the  day,  I  take  it, 
to  ask  who  Bob  Rogers  is !  But  in  the  end,  as  I  said,  it  all 
comes  right,  quite  right." 

"And  his  apology  was  full,  ample,  and  explicit?  Was 
it  in  writing,  Rogers?     I  'd  like  it  in  writing." 

"Like  what  in  writing.'* 

"His  apology,  or  explanation,  or  whatever  you  like  to 
call  it." 

"Who  ever  spoke  of  such  a  thing?  Who  so  much  as 
dreamed  of  it?  Haven't  I  told  you  the  affair  is  all  right? 
and  what  does  all  right  mean,  eh?  —  what  does  it  mean?  " 

"I  know  what  it  ought  to  mean,"  said  I,  angrily. 

"So  do  I,  and  so  do  most  men  in  this  island,  sir.  It 
means  twelve  paces  under  the  Battery  wall,  fire  together, 
and  as  many  shots  as  the  aggrieved  asks  for.  That 's  all 
right,  isn't  it?" 


408  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

*'In  one  sense  it  is  so,"  said  I,  with  a  mock  composure. 

''Well,  that 's  the  only  sense  I  ever  meant  to  consider  it 
by.  Go  back  now  to  your  tea,  or  your  sugar-and- water, 
or  whatever  it  is ;  and  when  you  come  home  to-night,  step 
into  my  room,  and  we  '11  have  a  cosey  chat  and  a  cigar. 
There  's  one  or  two  trifling  things  that  I  don't  understand 
in  this  affair,  and  I  put  my  own  explanation  on  them,  and 
maybe  it  ain't  the  right  one.  Not  that  it  signifies  now^  you 
perceive,  because  you  are  here  to  the  fore,  and  can  set 
them  right.  But  as  by  this  time  to-morrow  you  might  be 
where  —  I  won't  mention  —  we  may  as  well  put  them  straight 
this  evening." 

"I'll  beat  you  up,  depend  upon  it,"  said  I,  affecting  a 
slap-dash  style.  **I  can't  tell  you  how  glad  I  am  to  have 
fallen  into  your  hands,  Rogers.     You  suit  me  exactly." 

"Well,  it's  more  than  I  expected  when  I  saw  you  first, 
and  I  kept  saying  to  myself,  '  Whatever  could  have  per- 
suaded Joe  to  send  me  a  creature  like  that?'  To  tell  you 
the  truth,  I  thought  you  were  in  the  cheap  funeral  line." 

''Droll  dog! "  said  I,  while  my  fingers  were  writhing  and 
twisting  with  passion. 

"Not  that  it's  fair  to  take  a  fellow  by  his  looks.  I'm; 
aware  of  that.  Potts.  But  go  back  to  the  parlor;  that's  the 
second  time  the  maid  has  come  out  to  see  what  keeps  you. 
Go  back,  and  enjoy  yourself;  maybe  you  won't  have  so 
pleasant  an  opportunity  soon  again." 

This  was  the  parting  speech  of  the  wretch  as  he  buttoned 
the  collar  of  his  coat,  and  with  a  short  nod  bade  me  good- 
bye, and  left  me. 

"  Why  did  you  not  ask  your  friend  to  take  a  cup  of  tea 
with  us  ?  "  said  Kate,  as  I  re-entered  the  drawing-room. 

"Oh!  it  was  the  skipper,  a  rough  sort  of  creature,  not 
exactly  made  for  drawing-room  life ;  besides,  he  only  came 
to  ask  me  a  question." 

"  I  hope  it  was  not  a  very  unpleasant  one,  for  you  look 
pale  and  anxious." 

"Nothing  of  the  kind;  a  mere  formal  matter  about  my 
baggage." 

It  was  no  use ;  from  that  moment,  I  was  the  most  miser- 
able of  mankind.     What  availed  it  to  speculate  any  longer 


MY  DUELLING  AMBITION  AGAIN  DISAPPOINTED.      409 

on  the  future?  How  could  I  interest  myself  in  what  years 
might  bring  forth?  Hours,  and  a  very  few  of  them,  were 
all  that  were  left  to  me.  Poor  girl !  how  tenderly  she  tried 
to  divert  my  sorrow !  She,  most  probably,  ascribed  it  to  the 
prospect  of  our  speedy  separation;  and  with  delicacy  and 
tact,  she  tried  to  trace  out  some  faint  outlines  of  what 
painters  call  *' extreme  distance,"  —  a  sort  of  future  where 
all  the  skies  would  be  rose-colored  and  all  the  mountains 
blue.  I  am  sure,  if  a  choice  had  been  given  me  at  that 
instant,  I  would  rather  have  been  a  courageous  man  than  the 
greatest  genius  in  the  universe.  1  knew  better  what  was 
before.  At  last  it  came  to  ten  o'clock,  and  I  arose  to  say 
good-bye.  I  found  it  very  hard  not  to  fall  upon  her  neck 
and  say,  "Don't  be  angry  with  poor  Potts;  this  is  his  last 
as  it  is  his  first  embrace." 

''Wear  that  ring  for  me  and  for  my  sake,"  said  she,  giv- 
ing me  one  from  her  finger;  "don't  refuse  me,  — it  has  no 
value  save  what  you  may  attach  to  it  from  having  been 
mine." 

Oh  dear!  what  a  gulp  it  cost  me  not  to  say,  "I  '11  never 
take  it  off  while  I  live,"  and  then  add,  "which  will  be  about 
eight  hours  and  a  half  more." 

When  I  got  into  the  open  air,  I  ran  as  if  a  pack  of  wolves 
were  in  pursuit  of  me.  I  cannot  say  why;  but  the  rapid 
motion  served  to  warm  my  blood,  so  that  when  I  reached 
the  hotel,  I  felt  more  assured  and  more  resolute. 

Rogers  was  asleep,  and  so  soundly  that  I  had  to  pull  the 
pillow  from  beneath  his  head  before  I  could  awaken  him ; 
and  when  I  had  accomplished  the  feat,  either  the  remote 
effect  of  his  brandy-and-water  or  his  drowsiness  had  so 
obscured  his  faculties,  that  all  he  could  mumble  out  was, 
"Hit  him  where  he  can't  be  spliced,  — hit  him  where  they 
can't  splice  him!"  I  tried  for  a  long  time  to  recall  him 
to  sense  and  intelligence,  but  I  got  nothing  from  him 
save  the  one  inestimable  precept;  and  so  I  went  to  my 
room,  and,  throwing  myself  on  my  bed  in  my  cloak,  pre- 
pared for  a  night  of  gloomy  retrospect  and  gloomier  antici- 
pation; but,  odd  enough,  I  was  asleep  the  moment  I  lay 
down. 

"Get  up,  old  fellow,"  cried  Rogers,  shaking  me  violently. 


410  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

just  as  the  dawn  was  breaking;  "we  're  lucky  if  we  can  get 
aboard  before  they  catch  us." 

"  What  do  you  mean?  "  said  I.     "What 's  happened?  " 

"The  Governor  has  got  wind  of  our  shindy,  and  put  all 
the  red-coats  in  arrest,  and  ordered  the  police  to  nab  us 
too." 

"Bless  him!  bless  him!"  muttered  I. 

"Ay,  so  say  I.  He  be  blessed!"  cried  he,  catching  up 
my  words.  "But  let  us  make  ofif  through  the  garden;  my 
gig  is  down  in  the  offing,  and  they  *11  pull  in  when  they  hear 
my  whistle.  Ain't  it  provoking,  — ain't  it  enough  to  make 
a  man  swear?  " 

"I  have  no  words  for  what  I  feel,  Rogers,"  said  I,  bust- 
ling about  to  collect  my  stray  articles  through  the  room. 
"If  I  ever  chance  upon  that  Governor  —  he  has  only  five 
years  of  it  —  I  believe  —  " 

"Come  along!  I  see  the  boat  coming  round  the  point 
yonder."  And  with  this  we  slipped  noiselessly  down  the 
stairs,  down  the  street,  and  gained  the  jetty. 

"Steam  up?"  asked  the  skipper,  as  he  jumped  into  the 

gig- 

"Ay,  ay,  sir;  and  we're  short  on  the  anchor  too." 

In  less  than  half  an  hour  we  were  under  weigh,  and  I 

don't  think  I  ever  admired  a  land  prospect  receding  from 

view  with  more   intense  delight  than  I  did   that,  my  last 

glimpse  of  Malta. 


CHAPTER  XLVm. 

FINAL   ADVENTURES    AND    SETTLEMENT. 

Our  voyage  had  nothing  remarkable  to  record ;  we  reached 
Constantinople  in  due  course,  and  during  the  few  days  the 
"Cyclops"  remained,  I  had  abundant  time  to  discover  that 
there  was  no  trace  of  any  one  resembling  him  I  sought  for. 
By  the  advice  of  Rogers,  I  accompanied  him  to  Odessa. 
There,  too,  I  vras  not  more  fortunate;  and  though  I  insti- 
tuted the  most  persevering  inquiries,  all  I  could  learn  was 
that  some  Americans  were  employed  by  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment in  raising  the  frigates  sunk  at  Sebastopol,  and  that 
it  was  not  impossible  an  Englishman,  such  as  I  described, 
might  have  met  an  engagement  amongst  them.  At  all  events, 
one  of  the  coasting  craft  was  already  at  Odessa,  and  I  went 
on  board  of  her  to  make  my  inquiry.  I  learned  from  the 
mate,  who  was  a  German,  that  they  had  come  over  on  rather 
a  strange  errand,  which  was  to  convey  a  corps  of  circus 
people  to  Balaklava.  The  American  contractor  at  that  place, 
being  in  want  of  some  amusement,  had  arranged  with  these 
people  to  give  some  weeks'  performances  there,  but  that, 
from  an  incident  that  had  just  occurred,  the  project  had 
failed.  This  was  no  less  than  the  elopement  of  the  chief 
dancer,  a  young  girl  of  great  beauty,  with  a  young  prince 
of  Bavaria.  It  was  rumored  that  he  had  married  her,  but 
my  informant  gave  little  credence  to  this  version,  and 
averred  that  he  had  bought,  not  only  herself,  but  a  favorite 
Old  Arab  horse  she  rode,  for  thirty  thousand  piastres. 
I  asked  eagerly  where  the  others  of  the  corps  were  to  be 
found,  and  heard  they  had  crossed  over  to  Simoom,  all 
broken  up  and  disjointed,  the  chief  clown  having  died  of 
grief  after  the  girl's  flight. 


412  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

If  I  heard  this  tale  rudely  narrated,  and  not  always  with 
the  sort  of  comment  that  went  with  my  sympathies,  I  sor- 
rowed sincerely  over  it,  for  I  guessed  upon  whom  these 
events  had  fallen,  and  recognized  poor  old  Vaterchen  and 
the  dark-eyed  Tintefleck. 

*'You  've  fallen  into  the  black  melancholies  these  some 
days  back,"  said  Rogers  to  me.  "Rouse  up,  and  take  a 
cruise  with  me.  I  'm  going  over  to  Balaklava  with  these 
steam-boilers,  and  then  to  Sinope,  and  so  back  to  the  Bos- 
phorus.     Come  aboard  to-night,  it  will  do  you  good." 

I  took  his  counsel,  and  at  noon  next  daj^  we  dropped 
anchor  at  Balaklava.  We  had  scarcely  passed  our  "  health 
papers,"  when  a  boat  came  out  with  a  message  to  inquire  if 
we  had  a  doctor  on  board  who  could  speak  English,  for  the 
American  contractor  had  fallen  from  one  of  the  scaffolds 
that  morning,  and  was  lying  dreadfully  injured  up  at 
Sebastopol,  but  unable  to  explain  himself  to  the  Russian 
surgeons.  1  was  not  without  some  small  skill  in  medicine; 
and,  besides,  out  of  common  humanity,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to 
set  out,  and  at  about  sunset  I  reached  Sebastopol. 

Being  supposed  to  be  a  physician  of  great  skill  and  emi- 
nence, I  was  treated  by  all  the  persons  about  with  much 
deference,  and,  after  very  few  minutes'  delay,  introduced 
into  the  room  where  the  sick  man  lay.  He  had  ordered  that 
when  an  English  doctor  could  be  found,  they  were  to  leave 
them  perfectly  alone  together;  so  that,  as  I  entered,  the 
door  was  closed  immediately,  and  I  found  myself  alone  by 
the  bedside  of  the  sufferer.  The  curtain  was  closely  drawn 
across  the  windows,  and  it  was  already  dusk,  so  that  all  I 
could  discover  was  the  figure  of  a  man,  who  lay  breathing 
very  heavily,  and  with  the  irregular  action  that  implies  great 
pain. 

"Are  you  English?"  said  he,  in  a  strong,  full  voice. 
"Well,  feel  that  pulse,  and  tell  me  if  it  means  sinking;  I 
suspect  it  does." 

I  took  his  hand  and  laid  my  finger  on  the  artery.  It  was 
beating  furiously,  —  far  too  fast  to  count,  but  not  weakly 
nor  faintly. 

"No,"  said  I;  "this  is  fever,  but  not  debility." 

'*I  don't  want  subtleties,"  rejoined  he,  roughly.     "I  want 


FINAL  ADVENTURES  AND  SETTLEMENT.  413 

to  know  am  I  dying?  Draw  the  curtain  there,  open  the 
window  full,  and  have  a  look  at  me." 

I  did  as  he  bade  me,  and  returned  to  the  bedside.  It 
was  all  I  could  do  not  to  cry  out  with  astonishment;  for, 
though  terribly  disfigured  by  his  wounds,  his  eyes  actually 
covered  by  the  torn  scalp  that  hung  over  them,  I  saw  that  it 
was  Harpar  lay  before  me,  his  large  reddish  beard  now 
matted  and  clotted  with  blood. 

"Well,  what's  the  verdict?"  cried  he,  sternly;  "don't 
keep  me  in  suspense." 

"I  do  not  perceive  any  grave  symptoms  so  far  —  " 

"No  cant,  my  good  friend,  no  cant!  It's  out  of  place 
just  now.  Be  honest,  and  say  what  is  it  to  be,  —  live  or 
die?" 

"So  far  as  I  can  judge,  I  say,  live." 

"Well,  then,  set  about  the  repairs  at  once.  Ask  for  what 
you  want,  — they  '11  bring  it." 

Deeming  it  better  not  to  occasion  any  shock  whatever 
to  a  man  in  his  state,  I  forbore  declaring  who  I  was,  and 
set  about  my  office  with  what  skill  I  could. 

With  the  aid  of  a  Russian  surgeon,  who  spoke  German 
well,  I  managed  to  dress  the  wounds  and  bandage  the  frac- 
tured arm,  during  which  the  patient  never  spoke  once,  nor, 
indeed,  seemed  to  be  at  all  concerned  in  what  was  going 
on. 

"You  can  stay  here,  I  hope,"  said  he  to  me,  when  all 
was  finished.  "At  least,  you  '11  see  me  through  the  worst 
of  it.     I  can  afford  to  pay,  and  pay  well." 

"I  '11  stay,"  said  I,  imitating  his  own  laconic  way;  and  no 
more  was  said. 

Now,  though  it  was  not  my  intention  to  pass  myself  off 
for  a  physician,  or  derive  any,  even  the  smallest  advantage 
from  the  assumption  of  such  a  character,  I  saw  that,  remote 
as  the  poor  sufferer  was  from  his  friends  and  country,  and 
totally  destitute  of  even  companionship,  it  would  have  been 
cruel  to  desert  him  until  he  was  sufficiently  recovered  to  be 
left  with  servants. 

From  his  calm  composure,  and  the  self-control  he  was 
able  to  exercise,  I  had  formed  a  far  too  favorable  opinion 
of  his  case.     When  I  saw  him  first  the  inflammatory  symp- 


414  A  DAY»S  RIDE. 

toms  had  not  yet  set  in ;  so  that  at  my  next  visit  I  found 
him  in  a  high  fever,  raving  wildly.  In  his  wanderings  he 
imagined  himself  ever  directing  some  gigantic  enterprise, 
with  hundreds  of  men  at  his  command,  whose  efforts  he 
was  cheering  or  chiding  alternately.  The  indomitable  will 
of  a  most  resolute  nature  was  displayed  in  all  he  said ;  and 
though  his  bodily  sufferings  must  have  been  intense,  he 
only  alluded  to  them  to  show  how  little  power  they  had  to 
arrest  his  activity.  His  ever-recurring  cry  was,  "It  can 
be  done,  men!     It  can  be  done!     See  that  we  do  it!  " 

I  own  that,  even  though  stretched  on  a  sick-bed  and 
raving  madly,  this  man's  unquenchable  energy  impressed  me 
greatly ;  and  I  often  fancied  to  myself  what  must  have  been 
the  resources  of  such  a  bold  spirit  in  sad  contrast  to  a  nature 
pliant  and  yielding  like  mine.  To  the  violence  of  the  first 
access,  there  soon  succeeded  the  far  more  dangerous  state 
of  low  fever,  through  which  I  never  left  him.  Care  and 
incessant  watching  could  alone  save  him,  and  I  devoted 
myself  to  the  last  with  the  resolve  to  make  this  effort  the 
first  of  a  new  and  changed  existence. 

Day  and  night  in  the  sick-room,  I  lost  appetite  and 
strength,  while  an  unceasing  care  preyed  upon  me  and  de- 
prived me  even  of  rest.  The  very  vacillations  of  the  sick 
man's  malady  had  affected  my  nerves,  rendering  me  over- 
anxious, so  that  just  as  he  had  passed  the  great  crisis  of 
the  malady,  I  was  stricken  down  with  it  myself. 

My  first  day  of  convalescence,  after  seven  weeks  of  fever, 
found  me  sitting  at  a  little  window  that  looked  upon  the 
sea,  or  rather  the  harbor  of  Sebastopol,  where  two  frigates 
and  some  smaller  vessels  were  at  anchor.  A  group  of  light- 
ers and  such  unpicturesque  craft  occupied  another  part  of 
the  scene,  engaged,  as  it  seemed,  in  operations  for  raising 
other  vessels.  It  was  in  gazing  for  a  long  while  at  these, 
and  guessing  their  occupation,  that  I  learned  to  trace  out 
the  past,  and  why  and  how  I  had  come  to  be  sitting  there. 
Every  morning  the  German  servant  who  tended  me  through 
my  illness  used  to  bring  me  the  "Herr  Baron's  "  compli- 
ments to  know  how  I  was,  and  now  he  came  to  say  that  as 
the  "Herr  Baron"  was  able  to  walk  so  far,  he  begged  that 
he  might  be  permitted  to  come  and  pay  me  a  visit.     I  was 


FINAL  ADVENTURES  AND  SETTLEMENT.  415 

aware  of  the  Russian  custom  of  giving  titles  to  all  who 
served  the  Government  in  positions  of  high  trust,  and  was 
therefore  not  astonished  when  the  announcement  of  the 
"Herr  Baron  "  was  followed  by  the  entrance  of  Harpar,  who, 
sadly  reduced,  and  leaning  on  a  crutch,  made  his  way  slowly 
to  where  I  sat.  I  attempted  to  rise  to  receive  him,  but  he 
cried  out,  half  sternly,  — 

"Sit  still!  we  are  neither  of  us  in  good  trim  for 
ceremony." 

He  motioned  to  the  servants  to  leave  us  alone ;  then  lay- 
ing his  wasted  hand  in  mine,  for  we  were  each  too  weak  to 
grasp  the  other,  he  said,  — 

"I  know  all  about  it.  It  was  you  saved  my  life,  and 
risked  your  own  to  do  it." 

I  muttered  out  some  unmeaning  words  —  I  know  not  well 
what  —  about  duty  and  the  like. 

"I  don't  care  a  brass  button  for  the  motive.  You  stood 
to  me  like  a  man."  As  he  said  this,  he  looked  hard  at  me, 
and,  shading  the  light  with  his  hand,  peered  into  my  face, 
"Have  n't  we  met  before  this?     Is  not  your  name  Potts?  " 

"Yes,  and  you  're  Harpar." 

He  reddened,  but  so  slightly  that  but  for  the  previous 
paleness  of  his  sickly  cheek  it  would  not  have  been 
noticeable. 

"I  have  often  thought  about  2/om,"  said  he,  musingly. 
"This  is  not  the  only  service  you  have  done  me;  the  first 
was  at  Lindau,  —  mayhap  you  have  forgotten  it.  You  lent 
me  two  hundred  florins,  and,  if  I  'm  not  much  mistaken, 
when  you  were  far  from  being  rich  yourself." 

He  leaned  his  head  on  his  hand,  and  seemed  to  have 
fallen  into  a  musing  fit. 

"And,  after  all,"  said  I,  "of  the  best  turn  I  ever  did 
you,  you  have  never  heard  in  your  life,  and,  what  is  more, 
might  never  hear,  if  not  from  myself.  Do  you  remember 
an  altercation  on  the  road  to  Feldkirch,  with  a  man  called 
Rigges?" 

"To  be  sure  I  do;  he  smashed  the  small-bone  of  this  arm 
for  me ;  but  I  gave  worse  than  I  got.  They  never  could 
find  that  bullet  I  sent  into  his  side,  and  he  died  of  it  at 
Palermo.     But  what  share  in  this  did  you  bear?  " 


416  A  DAY'S  RIDE. 

'*  Not  the  worst  nor  the  best ;  but  I  was  imprisoned  for  a 
twelvemonth  in  your  place." 

*'  Imprisoned  for  me?  " 

*'  Yes ;  they  assumed  that  I  was  Harpar,  and  as  I  took 
no  steps  to  undeceive  them,  there  I  remained  till  they  seemed 
to  have  forgotten  all  about  me." 

Harpar  questioned  me  closely  and  keenly  as  to  the  reasons 
that  prompted  this  act  of  mine,  —  an  act  all  the  more  re- 
markable, as,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  We  were  men  who 
had  no  friendship  for  each  other,  actually  strangers ;  and," 
added  he,  significantly,  "  the  sort  of  fellows  who,  somehow, 
do  not  usually  '  hit  it  off '  together.  You  a  man  of  leisure, 
with  your  own  dreamy  mode  of  life ;  I,  a  hard  worker,  who 
could  not  enjoy  idleness ;  and  in  this  sense,  far  more  likely 
to  hold  each  other  cheaply  than  otherwise." 

I  attempted  to  account  for  this  piece  of  devotion  as  best 
I  might,  but  not  very  successfully,  since  I  was  only  endeav- 
oring to  explain  what  I  really  did  not  well  understand  my- 
self. Nor  could  a  vague  desire  to  do  something  generous, 
merely  because  it  was  generous,  satisfy  the  practical  intelli- 
gence of  him  who  heard  me. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  at  last,  "  all  that  machinery  you  have 
described  is  so  new  and  strange  to  me,  I  can  tell  nothing  as 
to  how  it  ought  to  work ;  but  I  'm  as  grateful  to  you  as  a 
man  can  be  for  a  service  which  he  could  not  have  rendered 
himself^  nor  has  the  slightest  notion  of  what  could  have 
prompted  you  to  do.  Now,  let  me  hear  by  what  chance  you 
came  here?  " 

*'  You  must  listen  to  a  long  story  to  learn  that,"  said  I; 
and  as  he  declared  that  he  had  nothing  more  pressing  to  do 
with  his  time,  I  began,  almost  as  I  have  begun  with  my 
reader.  On  my  first  mention  of  Crofton,  he  asked  me  to 
repeat  the  name  ;  and  when  I  spoke  of  meeting  Miss  Herbert 
at  the  Milford  station,  he  slightly  moved  his  chair,  as  if  to 
avoid  the  strong  light  from  the  window;  but  from  that 
moment  till  I  finished,  he  never  interrupted  me  by  a  word, 
nor  interposed  a  question. 

*'  And  it  was  she  gave  you  that  old  seal-ring  I  see  on  your 
finger?  "  said  he,  at  last. 

"  Yes,"  said  I.     "  How  came  you  to  guess  that?  " 


FINAL  ADVENTURES  AND  SETTLEMENT.  417 

**  Because  I  gave  it  to  her  the  day  she  was  sixteen !  I 
am  her  father." 

I  drew  a  long  breath,  and  could  only  clutch  his  arm  with 
astonishment,  without  being  able  to  speak. 

"It's  all  well-known  in  England,  now.  Everybody  has 
been  paid  in  full,  my  creditors  have  met  in  a  body,  and 
signed  a  request  to  me  to  come  back  and  recommence  busi- 
ness. They  have  done  more ;  they  have  bought  up  the  lease 
of  the  Foundry,  and  sent  it  out  to  me.  Ay,  and  old  Elkanah's 
mortgage,  too,  is  redeemed,  and  I  don't  owe  a  shilling." 

''  You  must  have  worked  hard  to  accomplish  all  this?  " 

*'  Pretty  hard,  no  doubt.  You  remember  those  little  boats 
with  the  holes  in  'em  at  Lindau.  They  did  the  business  for 
me.  I  was  fool  enough  at  that  time  to  imagine  that  you  had 
got  a  clew  to  my  discovery,  and  were  after  me  to  pick  up  all 
the  details.  I  ought  to  have  known  better !  It  was  easy 
enough  to  see  that  you  could  have  no  head  for  anything  with 
a  ^  tough  bone '  in  it.  Light,  thoughtless  creatures  of  your 
kind  are  never  dangerous  anywhere !  " 

I  was  not  quite  sure  whether  I  was  expected  to  return 
thanks  for  this  speech  in  my  favor,  and  therefore  only 
made  some  very  unintelligible  mutterings. 

"There's  only  one  liner  now  to  be  raised,  and  all  the 
guns  are  already  out  of  her,  but  I  can  return  to-morrow. 
I  am  free ;  my  contract  is  completed ;  and  the  '  Ignatief  * 
«loop-of-war  is  at  my  orders  at  Balaklava  to  convey  me  to 
any  port  I  please  in  Europe." 

He  said  this  so  boastfully  and  so  vaingloriously  that  I 
really  felt  Potts  in  his  humility  was  not  the  smaller  man  of 
the  two.  Nor,  perhaps,  was  my  irritation  the  less,  at  seeing 
how  little  surprise  our  singular  meeting  had  caused  him,  and 
how  much  he  regarded  all  I  had  done  in  his  behalf  as  being 
ordinary  and  commonplace  services.  But,  perhaps,  the  coup 
de  grace  of  my  misery  came  as  he  said,  — 

"  Though  I  forwarded  that  ten-pound  note  you  lent  me 
to  Rome,  perhaps  you  '11  like  to  have  it  now.  If  you  need 
any  more,  say  so." 

My  heart  was  in  my  mouth,  and  I  felt  that  I  'd  have  died 
of  starvation  rather  than  accept  the  humblest  benefit  at  his 
hands. 

27 


418  A  DAY^S  RIDE. 

*'  Very  well,"  said  he  to  my  refusal ;  "all  the  better  that 
you  've  no  need  of  cash,  for,  to  tell  the  truth.  Potts,  you  're 
not  much  of  a  doctor,  nor  are  you  very  remarkable  as  a  man 
of  genius ;  and  it  is  a  kind  thing  of  Providence  when  such 
fellows  as  you  are  born  with  even  a  *  pewter  spoon '  in  their 
mouths.*' 

I  nearly  choked,  but  I  said  nothing. 

"If  you'd  like  me  to  land  you  anywhere  in  the  Levant, 
or  down  towards  the  Spanish  coast,  only  tell  me." 

"  No,  nothing  of  the  kind.  I  'm  going  north ;  I  'm  going 
to  Moscow,  to  Tobolsk ;  I  'm  going  to  Persia  and  Astrakhan," 
said  I,  in  wildest  confusion. 

"Well,  I  can  give  you  a  capital  travelling-cloak  —  it's 
one  of  those  buntas  they  make  in  the  Banat,  and  you  '11  need 
it,  for  they  have  fearfully  severe  cold  in  those  countries." 

With  this,  and  not  waiting  my  resolute  refusal,  he  rose, 
hobbled  out  of  the  room,  and  I  —  ay,  there 's  no  concealing 
it  —  burst  out  a-crying ! 

Weak  and  sick  as  I  was,  I  procured  an  "araba"  that 
night,  and,  without  one  word  of  adieu,  set  out  for  Krim. 


It  was  about  two  years  after  this  —  my  father  had  died 
in  the  interval,  leaving  me  a  small  but  sufficient  fortune  to 
live  on,  and  I  had  just  arrived  in  Paris,  after  a  long  desul- 
tory ramble  through  the  east  of  Europe  —  I  was  standing 
one  morning  early  in  one  of  the  small  alleys  of  the  Champs 
Elysees,  watching  with  half-listless  curiosity  the  various 
grooms  as  they  passed  to  exercise  their  horses  in  the  Bois 
de  Boulogne.  Group  after  group  passed  me  of  those  magni- 
ficent animals  in  which  Paris  is  now  more  than  the  rival  of 
London,  and  at  length  I  was  struck  by  the  appearance  of  a 
very  smartly  dressed  groom,  who  led  along  beside  him  a 
small-sized  horse,  completely  sheeted  and  shrouded  from 
view.  Believing  that  this  must  prove  some  creature  of  rare 
beauty,  an  Arab  of  purest  descent,  I  followed  them  as  they 
went,  and  at  last  overtook  them. 

The  groom  was  English,  and  by  my  offer  of  a  cigar,  some- 
what better  than  the  one  he  was  smoking,  he  was  very 
willing  to  satisfy  my  curiosity. 


FINAL  ADVENTURES  AND  SETTLEMENT.  419 

*'I  suppose  he  has  Arab  blood  in  hun,"  said  he,  half 
contemptuously;  *'but  he's  forty  years  old  now  if  he's  a 
day.  What  they  keep  him  for  I  don't  know,  but  they  make 
as  much  work  about  him  as  if  he  was  a  Christian ;  and  as 
for  myself,  I  have  nothing  else  to  do  than  walk  him  twice 
a  day  to  his  exercise,  and  take  care  that  his  oats  are  well 
bruised  and  mixed  with  linseed,  for  he  hasn't  a  tooth  left." 

*'  I  suppose  his  master  is  some  very  rich  man,  who  can 
afford  himself  a  caprice  like  this." 

''For  the  matter  of  money,  he  has  enough  of  it.  He  is 
the  Prince  Ernest  Maximilian  of  Wtirtemberg,  and,  except 
the  Emperor,  has  the  best  stable  in  all  Paris.  But  I  don't 
think  that  he  cares  much  for  the  old  horse ;  it 's  the  Princess 
likes  him,  and  she  constantly  drives  out  to  the  wood  here, 
and  when  we  come  to  a  quiet  spot,  where  there  are  no 
strangers,  she  makes  me  take  off  all  the  body-clothes  and 
the  hood,  and  she  '11  get  out  of  the  carriage  and  pat  him. 
And  he  knows  her,  that  he  does !  and  lifts  up  that  old  leg 
of  his  when  she  comes  towards  him,  and  tries  to  whinny 
too.  But  here  she  comes  now,  and  it  won't  do  if  I  'm  seen 
talking  to  you;  so  just  drop  behind,  sir,  and  never  notice 
me." 

I  crossed  the  road,  and  had  but  reached  the  opposite  path- 
way, when  a  carriage  stopped,  and  the  old  horse  drew  up 
beside  it.  After  a  word  or  two,  the  groom  took  off  the 
hood,  and  there  was  Blondel !  But  my  amazement  was  lost 
in  the  greater  shock  that  the  Princess,  whose  jewelled  hand 
held  out  the  sugar  to  him,  was  no  other  than  Catinka ! 

I  cannot  say  with  what  motive  I  was  impelled,  ^  perhaps 
the  action  was  too  quick  for  either,  —  but  I  drew  nigh  to 
the  carriage,  and,  raising  my  hat  respectfully,  asked  if  her 
highness  would  deign  to  remember  an  old  acquaintance. 

"I  am  unfortunate  enough,  sir,  not  to  be  able  to  recall 
you,"  said  she,  in  the  most  perfect  Parisian-  French. 

''  My  name  you  may  have  forgotten,  madam,  but  scarcely 
so  either  ojir  first  meeting  at  Schaffhausen,  or  our  last  at 
Bregenz." 

''  These  are  all  riddles  to  me,  sir;  and  I  am  sure, you  are 
too  well  bred  to  persist  in  an  error  after  you  have  recognized 
it  to  be  such."     With  a  cold   smile   and  a  haughty  bow, 


420  A  DAY'S  KEDE. 

she  motioned  the  coachman  to  drive  on,  and  I  saw  her  no 
more. 

Stung  to  the  very  quick,  but  yet  not  without  a  misgiving 
that  I  might  be  possibly  mistaken,  I  hurried  to  the  police 
department,  where  the  list  of  strangers  was  preserved.  By 
sending  in  my  card  I  was  admitted  to  see  one  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  department,  who  politely  informed  me  that  the  prin- 
cess was  totally  unknown  as  to  family,  and  not  included  in 
the  Gotha  Almanack. 

"May  I  ask,"  said  he,  as  I  prepared  to  retire,  '*if  this 
letter  here  —  it  has  been  with  us  for  more  than  a  year  —  is 
for  your  address  ?  It  came  with  an  enclosure  covering  any 
possible  expense  in  reaching  your  address,  and  has  lain  here 
ever  since." 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  "  my  name  is  Algernon  Sydney  Potts." 

Strange  are  the  changes  and  vicissitudes  of  life !  Just  as 
I  stood  there,  shocked  and  overwhelmed  with  one  trait  of 
cold  ingratitude,  I  found  a  letter  from  Kate  (she  who  was 
once  Kate  Herbert),  telling  me  how  they  had  sent  messen- 
gers after  me  through  Europe,  and  begging,  if  these  lines 
should  ever  reach  me,  to  come  to  them  in  Wales.  '^My 
father  loves  you,  my  mother  longs  to  know  you,  and  none 
can  be  more  eager  to  thank  you  than  your  friend  Kate 
WhaUey." 

1  set  off  for  England  that  night  —  I  left  for  Wales  the 
next  morning  —  and  I  have  never  quitted  it  since  that  day. 


THE  END. 


THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S 


TO 

BARON    EMILE    ERLANGER. 


My  dear  Erlangbr,  —  Through  the  many  anxieties  which 
beset  me  while  I  was  writing  this  story,  your  name  was  con- 
tinually recurring,  and  always  with  some  act  of  kindness,  oi- 
some  proof  of  affection.  Let  me,  then,  in  simple  gratitude 
dedicate  to  you  a  volume  of  which,  in  a  measure,  you  stand 
sponsor,  and  say  to  the  world  at  large  what  I  have  so  often 
aaid  to  my  own. 

How  sincerely  and  heartily  I  am 

Your  friend, 

CHARLES  LEVER. 
Trieste,  February  20th,  1869. 


THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTrS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   TRIAL. 

Some  years  ago  there  was  a  trial  in  Dublin,  which,  partly 
because  the  parties  in  the  cause  were  in  a  well-to-do  condi- 
tion of  life,  and  partly  because  the  case  in  some  measure 
involved  the  interests  of  the  two  conflicting  Churches, 
excited  considerable  sensation  and  much  comment. 

The  contention  was  the  right  to  the  guardianship  of  a 
boy  whose  father  and  mother  had  ceased  to  live  together. 
On  their  separation  they  had  come  to  a  sort  of  amicable 
arrangement  that  the  child  —  then  seven  years  old  —  should 
live  alternate  years  with  each;  and  though  the  mother's 
friends  warmly  urged  her  not  to  consent  to  a  plan  so  full 
of  danger  to  her  child,  and  so  certain  to  result  in  the  worst 
effects  on  his  character,  the  poor  woman,  whose  rank  in  life 
was  far  inferior  to  her  husband's,  yielded,  partly  from  habit 
of  deference  to  his  wishes,  and  more  still  because  she 
believed,  in  refusing  these  terms,  she  might  have  found 
herself  reduced  to  accept  even  worse  ones.  The  marriage 
had  been  unfortunate  in  every  way.  Sir  Roger  Norcott  had 
accompanied  his  regiment,  the  — th  Dragoons,  to  Ireland, 
where  some  violent  disturbances  in  the  south  had  called  for 
an  increase  of  military  force.  When  the  riots  had  been 
suppressed,  the  troops,  broken  up  into  small  detachments, 
were  quartered  through  the  counties,  as  opportunity  and 
convenience  served ;  Norcott's  troop  —  for  he  was  a  captain 


426  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

—  being  stationed  in  that  very  miserable  and  poverty- 
stricken  town  called  Macroom.  Here  the  dashing  soldier, 
who  for  years  had  been  a  Guardsman,  mixing  in  all  the 
gayeties  of  a  London  life,  passed  days  and  weeks  of  dreary 
despondency.  His  two  subs,  who  happened  to  be  sons  of 
men  in  trade,  he  treated  with  a  cold  and  distant  politeness, 
but  never  entered  into  their  projects,  nor  accepted  their 
companionship  ;  and  though  they  messed  together  each  day, 
no  other  intimacy  passed  between  them  than  the  courtesies 
of  the  table. 

It  chanced  that  while  thus  hipped,  and  out  of  sorts, 
sick  of  the  place  and  the  service  that  had  condemned  him 
to  it,  he  made  acquaintance  with  a  watchmaker,  when  pay- 
ing for  some  slight  service,  and  subsequently  with  his 
daughter,  a  very  pretty,  modest-looking,  gentle  girl  of 
eighteen.  The  utter  vacuity  of  his  life,  the  tiresome  hours 
of  barrack-room  solitude,  the  want  of  some  one  to  talk  to 
him,  but,  still  more,  of  some  one  to  listen,  —  for  he  liked  to 
talk,  and  talked  almost  well,  —  led  him  to  pass  more  than 
half  his  days  and  all  his  evenings  at  their  house.  Nor  was 
the  fact  that  his  visits  had  become  a  sort  of  town  scandal 
without  its  charm  for  a  man  who  actually  pined  for  a 
sensation,  even  though  painful;  and  there  was,  too,  an 
impertinence  that,  while  declining  the  society  of  the  supposed 
upper  classes  of  the  neighborhood,  he  found  congenial  com- 
panionship with  these  humble  people,  had  a  marvellous 
attraction  for  a  man  who  had  no  small  share  of  resentfulness 
in  his  nature,  and  was  seldom  so  near  being  happy  as  when 
flouting  some  prejudice  or  outraging  some  popular  opinion. 

It  had  been  his  passion  through  life  to  be  ever  doing  or 
saying  something  that  no  one  could  have  anticipated.  For 
the  pleasure  of  astonishing  the  world,  no  sacrifice  was  too 
costly ;  and  whether  he  rode,  or  shot,  or  played,  or  yachted, 
his  first  thought  was  notoriety.  An  ample  fortune  lent 
considerable  aid  to  this  tendency ;  but  every  year's  extrava- 
gance was  now  telling  on  his  resources,  and  he  was  forced 
to  draw  on  his  ingenuity  where  before  he  needed  but  to  draw 
on  his  banker. 

There  was  nothing  that  his  friends  thought  less  likely 
than  that  he  would   marry,  except  that,  if   he  should,  his 


THE  TRIAL.  427 

wife  would  not  be  a  woman  of  family :  to  bowl  over  both 
of  these  beliefs  together,  he  married  the  watchmaker's 
daughter,  and  Mary  Owen  became  a  baronet's  bride. 

Perhaps  —  1  'm  not  very  sure  of  even  that  —  her  marriage 
gave  her  one  entire  day  of  unbroken  happiness,  —  I  do  not 
believe  it  gave  her  a  week,  and  I  know  it  did  not  a  month. 
Whether  it  was  that  his  friends  were  less  shocked  than 
he  had  hoped  for,  or  that  the  shock  wore  out'  sooner,  he 
was  frantic  at  the  failure  of  his  grand  coup,  and  imme- 
diately set  about  revenging  on  his  unhappy  wife  all  the 
disappointment  she  had  caused  him.  After  a  series  of 
cruelties  —  some  of  which  savored  of  madness  —  but  which 
she  bore  without  complaint,  or  even  murmur,  he  bethought 
him  that  her  religious  belief  offered  a  groundwork  for  tor- 
ment which  he  had  hitherto  neglected.  He  accordingly 
determined  to  make  his  profession  to  the  Church  of  Rome, 
and  to  call  on  her  to  follow.  This  she  stoutly  refused ;  and 
he  declared  that  they  should  separate.  The  menace  had 
no  longer  a  terror  for  her.  She  accepted  whatever  terms 
he  was  pleased  to  dictate ;  she  only  stipulated  as  to  the 
child,  and  for  him  but  to  the  extent  we  have  already  seen. 
The  first  year  after  the  separation  the  boy  passed  with  his 
father;  the  second  he  spent  with  his  mother.  At  the  end 
of  the  third  year,  when  her  turn  again  came  round,  Sir 
Roger  refused  to  part  with  him ;  and  when  reminded  of  his 
promise,  coarsely  replied  that  his  boy,  above  all  things, 
must  be  ''  a  gentleman,"  and  that  he  was  now  arrived  at 
an  age  when  association  with  low  and  vulgar  people  would 
attach  a  tone  to  his  mind  and  a  fashion  to  his  thoughts 
that  all  the  education  in  the  world  would  not  eradicate ; 
and  that  rather  than  yield  to  such  a  desecration,  he  would 
litigate  the  matter  to  the  last  shilling  of  his  estate.  Such 
was  the  cause  before  the  Barons  of  the  Exchequer:  the 
mother  pleading  that  her  child  should  be  restored  to  her ;  the 
father  opposing  the  demand  that  the  mother's  habits  and 
associates  were  not  in  accordance  with  the  prospects  of  one 
who  should  inherit  title  and  fortune ;  and,  last  of  all,  that 
the  boy  was  devotedly  attached  to  him,  and  bore  scarcely  a 
trace  of  affection  for  his  mother. 

So  painful  were   the   disclosures   that  came  out  during 


428  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

the  trial,  so  subversive  of  every  feeling  that  pertains  to  the 
sanctity  of  the  family,  and  so  certain  to  work  injuriously 
on  the  character  of  the  child  whose  interests  were  at  stake, 
that  the  judge  made  more  than  one  attempt  to  arrest  the 
proceedings  and  refer  the  case  to  arbitration,  but  Sir  Roger 
would  not  agree  to  this.  He  was  once  more  in  his  element, 
he  was  before  the  world,  —  the  newspapers  were  full  of  him, 
and,  better  than  all,  in  attack  and  reprobation.  He  had 
demanded  to  be  put  on  the  table  as  a  witness,  and  they  who 
saw,  it  is  said,  never  forgot  the  insolent  defiance  of  public 
opinion  that  he  on  that  day  displayed  ;  how  boldly  he  paraded 
opinions  in  opposition  to  every  sense  of  right  and  justice, 
and  how  openly  he  avowed  his  principle  of  education  to  be 
—  to  strip  off  from  youth  every  delusion  as  to  the  existence 
of  truth  and  honor  in  life,  and  to  teach  a  child,  from  his 
earliest  years,  that  trickery  and  falsehood  were  the  daily 
weapons  of  mankind,  and  that  he  who  would  not  consent  to 
be  the  dupe  of  his  fellow-men  must  be  their  despot  and  their 
persecutor.  If  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  outraging  the  feel- 
ings of  all  in  court,  and  insulting  every  sense  of  propriety 
and  decorum,  he  paid  heavily  for  the  brief  triumph.  The 
judge  delivered  a  most  stern  denunciation  of  his  doctrines, 
and  declared  that  no  case  had  ever  come  before  the  court 
where  so  little  hesitation  existed  as  to  the  judgment  to  be 
pronounced.  The  sentence  was  that,  up  to  the  age  of  twelve, 
the  child  was  to  be  confided  to  the  mother's  charge ;  after 
which  period  the  court  would,  on  application,  deliberate  and 
determine  on  the  future  guardianship. 

"  Will  you  leave  me,  Digby?"  asked  the  father;  and  hi& 
lips  trembled,  and  his  cheek  blanched  as  he  uttered  the 
words.  The  boy  sprang  into  his  arms,  and  kissed  him 
wildly  and  passionately;  and  the  two  clung  to  each  other 
in  close  embrace,  and  their  mingled  sobs  echoed  through 
the  now  silent  court.  *' You  see,  my  Lord,  you  see  —  "^ 
cried  the  father;  but  the  boy's  struggles  were  choking^ 
him,  and,  with  his  own  emotions,  would  not  suffer  him  to 
continue.  His  sufferings  were  now  real,  and  a  murmur 
ran  through  the  court  that  showed  how  public  feeling  was 
trembling  in  the  balance.  The  bustle  of  a  new  cause  that 
was  coming  on  soon  closed  the  scene.    The  child  was  handed 


THE  TRIAL.  429 

over  to  an  officer  of  the  court,  while  the  mother's  friends 
■concerted  together,  and  all  was  over. 

Over  as  regarded  the  first  act  of  a  life-long  drama ;  and 
«re  the  curtain  rises,  it  only  remains  to  say  that  the  cause 
which  that  day  decided  was  mine,  and  that  I,  who  write 
this,  was  the  boy  "Digby  Norcott." 


CHAPTER  II. 

WITH   MY   MOTHER. 

My  mother  lived  in  a  little  cottage  at  a  place  called  the 
Green  Lanes,  about  three  miles  from  Dublin.  The  name 
was  happily  given,  for  on  every  side  there  were  narrow 
roads  overshadowed  by  leafy  trees,  which  met  above  and 
gave  only  glimpses  of  sky  and  cloud  through  their  feathery 
foliage.  The  close  hedgerows  of  white  or  pink  thorn  limited 
the  view  on  either  side,  and  imparted  a  something  of  gloom 
to  a  spot  whose  silence  was  rarely  broken,  for  it  was  not  a 
rich  man's  neighborhood.  They  who  frequented  it  were 
persons  of  small  fortune,  retired  subalterns  in  the  army,  or 
clerks  in  public  offices,  and  such  like  petty  respectabilities 
who  preferred  to  herd  together,  and  make  no  contrasts  of 
their  humble  means  with  larger,  greater  incomes. 

Amongst  the  sensations  I  shall  never  forget  —  and  which, 
while  I  write,  are  as  fresh  as  the  moment  I  first  felt  them  — 
were  my  feelings  when  the  car  stopped  opposite  a  low 
wicket,  and  Mr.  McBride,  the  attorney,  helped  me  down 
and  said,  *' This  is  your  home,  Digby;  your  mother  live& 
here."  The  next  moment  a  pale  but  very  handsome  young 
woman  came  rushing  down  the  little  path  and  clasped  me  in 
her  arms.  She  had  dropped  on  her  knees  to  bring  her  face 
to  mine,  and  she  kissed  me  madly  and  wildly,  so  that  my 
cap  fell  off.  "  See  how  my  frill  is  all  rumpled,"  said  I,  un- 
used as  I  was  to  such  disconcerting  warmth,  and  caring  far 
more  for  my  smart  appearance  than  for  demonstrations  of 
affection.  "Oh,  darling,  never  mind  it,"  sobbed  she.  "You 
shall  have  another  and  a  nicer.  I  will  make  it  myself,  for 
my  own  boy,  —  for  you  are  mine,  Digby.  You  are  mine, 
dearest,  ain't  you?" 

"  I  am  papa's  boy,"  said  I,  doggedly. 


WITH  MY  MOTHER.  431 

**  But  you  will  love  mamma  too,  Digby,  won't  you?  — 
poor  mamma,  that  has  no  one  to  love  her,  or  care  for  her  if 
you  do  not;  and  who  will  so  love  you  in  return,  and  do 
everything  for  you,  —  everything  to  make  you  happy,  — 
happy  and  good,  Digby." 

"Then  let  us  go  back  to  Earls  Court.  It's  far  prettier 
than  this,  and  there  are  great  lions  over  the  gateway,  and 
wide  steps  up  to  the  door.  I  don't  like  this.  It  looks  so 
dark  and  dreary,  —  it  makes  me  cry."  And  to  prove  it,  I 
burst  out  into  a  full  torrent  of  weeping,  and  my  mother 
hung  over  me  and  sobbed  too ;  and  long  after  the  car  had 
driven  away,  we  sat  there  on  the  grass  weeping  bitterly 
together,  though  there  was  no  concert  in  our  sorrow,  nor 
any  soul  to  our  grief. 

That  whole  afternoon  was  passed  in  attempts  to  comfort 
and  caress  me  by  my  mother,  and  in  j^etulant  demands  on 
my  part  for  this  or  that  luxury  I  had  left  behind  me.  I 
wanted  my  nice  bed  with  the  pink  curtains,  and  my  little 
tool-case.  I  wanted  my  little  punt,  my  pony,  my  fishing- 
rod.  I  wanted  the  obsequious  servants,  who  ran  at  my 
bidding,  and  whose  respectful  manner  was  a  homage  I  loved 
to  exact.  Not  one  of  these  was  forthcoming,  and  how 
could  I  believe  her  who  soothingly  told  me  that  her  love 
would  replace  them,  and  that  her  heart's  affection  would 
soon  be  dearer  to  me  than  all  my  toys  and  all  the  glittering- 
presents  that  littered  my  room?  "But  T  want  my  pony,"  I 
cried ;  "  I  want  my  little  dog  Fan,  and  I  want  to  sit  beside 
papa,  and  see  him  drive  four  horses,  and  he  lets  me  whip 
them  too,  and  you  won't."  And  so  I  cried  hysterically  again, 
and  in  these  fretful  paroxysms  I  passed  my  evening. 

The  first  week  of  my  life  there  was  to  me  —  it  still  is  to 
me  —  like  a  dream, — a  sad,  monotonous  dream.  Repulsed 
in  every  form,  my  mother  still  persisted  in  trying  to  amuse 
OT  interest  me,  and  I  either  sat  in  moody  silence,  refusing 
all  attention,  or  went  off  into  passionate  grief,  sobbing  as 
if  my  heart  would  break.  "  Let  him  cry  his  fill,"  said  old 
Biddy  the  maid,  —  "let  him  cry  his  fill,  and  it  will  do  him 
good."  And  I  could  have  killed  her  on  the  spot  as  she 
said  it. 

If  Biddy  Cassidy  really  opined  that  a  hearty  fit  of  crying 


432  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

would  have  been  a  good  alterative  for  me,  she  ought  not  to 
have  expressed  the  opinion  in  my  presence,  for  there  was 
that  much  of  my  father  in  me  that  quickly  suggested  resist- 
ance, and  I  at  once  resolved  that,  no  matter  what  it  might 
cost  me,  or  by  what  other  means  I  might  find  a  vent  for  my 
grief,  I  'd  cry  no  more.  All  my  poor  mother's  caresses,  all 
her  tenderness,  and  all  her  watchful  care  never  acted  on  my 
character  with  half  the  force  or  one-tenth  of  the  rapidity 
that  did  this  old  hag's  attempt  to  thwart  and  oppose  me. 
Her  system  was,  by  a  continual  comparison  between  my 
present  life  and  my  past,  to  show  how  much  better  off  I 
was  now  than  in  my  former  high  estate,  and  by  a  travesty 
of  all  I  had  been  used  to,  to  pretend  that  anything  like 
complaint  from  me  would  be  sheer  ingratitude.  "  Here  's 
the  pony,  darlin',  waitin'  for  you  to  ride  him,"  she  would 
say,  as  she  would  lay  an  old  walking-stick  beside  my  door; 
and  though  the  blood  would  rush  to  my  head  at  the  insult, 
and  something  very  nigh  choking  rise  to  my  throat,  I  would 
master  my  passion  and  make  no  reply.  This  demeanor  was 
set  down  to  sulkiness,  and  Biddy  warmly  entreated  my 
mother  to  suppress  the  temper  it  indicated,  and,  as  she 
mildly  suggested,  "  cut  it  out  of  me  when  I  was  young"  — 
a  counsel,  I  must  own,  she  did  not  follow. 

Too  straitened  in  her  means  to  keep  a  governess  for  me, 
and  unwilling  to  send  me  to  a  school,  my  mother  became  my 
teacher  herself ;  and,  not  having  had  any  but  the  very  com- 
monest education,  she  was  obliged  to  acquire  in  advance 
what  she  desired  to  impart.  Many  a  night  would  she  pore 
over  the  Latin  Grammar,  that  she  might  be  even  one  stage 
before  me  in  the  morning.  Over  and  over  did  she  get  up 
the  bit  of  geography  that  was  to  test  my  knowledge  the 
next  day;  and  in  this  way,  while  leading  me  on,  she  ac- 
quired, almost  without  being  aware  of  it,  a  considerable 
amount  of  information.  Her  faculties  were  above  the  com- 
mon, and  her  zeal  could  not  be  surpassed ;  so  that,  while 
I  was  stumbling  and  blundering  over  ''  Swaine's  Senten- 
ces," she  had  read  all  Sallust's  "  Catiline,"  and  most  of 
the  ' '  Odes "  of  Horace ;  and  long  before  I  had  mastered 
my  German  declensions,  she  was  reading  "  Grimm's  Stories  " 
:and  Auerbach's  "Village  Sketches."     Year  after  year  went 


WITH  MY  MOTHER.  433 

over  quietly,  uneventfully.  I  had  long  ceased  to  remember 
my  former  life  of  splendor,  or,  if  it  recurred  to  me,  it  came 
with  no  more  of  reality  than  the  events  of  a  dream.  One 
day,  indeed,  —  I  shall  never  forget  it,  —  the  past  revealed 
itself  before  me  with  the  vivid  distinctness  of  a  picture,  and, 
I  shame  to  say,  rendered  me  unhappy  and  discontented  for 
several  days  after.  I  was  returning  one  afternoon  from 
a  favorite  haunt,  where  I  used  to  spend  hours,  —  the  old 
churchyard  of  Killester,  a  long-unused  cemetery,  with  a 
ruined  church  beside  it,  —  when  four  spanking  chestnuts 
came  to  the  foot  of  the  little  rise  on  which  the  ruin  stood, 
and  the  servants,  jumping  down,  undid  the  bearing-reins, 
to  breathe  the  cattle  up  the  ascent.  It  was  my  father  was 
on  the  box ;  and  as  he  skilfully  brushed  the  flies  from  his 
horses  with  his  whip,  gently  soothing  the  hot-mettled  crea- 
tures with  his  voice,  I  bethought  me  of  the  proud  time  when 
I  sat  beside  him,  and  when  he  talked  to  me  of  the  differ- 
ent tempers  of  each  horse  in  the  team,  instilling  into  me 
that  interest  and  that  love  for  them,  as  thinking  sentient 
creatures,  which  gives  the  horse  a  distinct  character  to  all 
who  have  learned  thus  to  think  of  him  from  childhood.  He 
never  looked  at  me  as  he  passed.  How  should  he  recog- 
nize the  little  boy  in  the  gray  linen  blouse  he  was  wont  to 
see  in  black  velvet  with  silver  buttons  ?  Perhaps  I  was  not 
sorry  he  did  not  know  me.  Perhaps  I  felt  it  easier  to  fight 
my  own  shame  alone  than  if  it  had  been  confessed  and  wit- 
nessed. At  all  events,  the  sight  sent  me  home  sad  and 
depressed,  no  longer  able  to  take  pleasure  in  my  usual  pur- 
suits, and  turning  from  my  toys  and  books  with  actual 
aversion. 

Remembering  how  all  mention  of  my  father  used  to  affect 
my  mother  long  ago,  seeing  how  painfully  his  mere  name 
acted  upon  her,  I  forbore  to  speak  of  this  incident,  and  bur- 
ied it  in  my  heart,  to  think  and  ruminate  over  when  alone. 

Time  went  on  and  on  till  I  wanted  but  a  few  months 
of  twelve,  and  my  lessons  were  all  but  dropped,  as  my 
mother*s  mornings  were  passed  either  in  letter-writing  or 
in  interviews  with  her  lawyer.  It  was  on  the  conclusion 
of  one  of  these  councils  that  Mr.  McBride  led  me  into  the 
garden,  and,  seating  me  beside  him  on  a  bench,  said,  *'  I 


434  THAT  BOY  OF  NOKCOTTS. 

have  something  to  say  to  you,  Digby;  and  I  don't  know 
that  I  'd  venture  to  say  it,  if  I  had  not  seen  that  you  are 
a  thoughtful  boy,  and  an  affectionate  son  of  the  best  mother 
that  ever  lived.  You  are  old  enough,  besides,  to  have  a 
right  to  know  something  about  yourself  and  your  future 
prospects,  and  it  is  for  that  I  have  come  out  to-day."  And 
with  this  brief  preface  he  told  me  the  whole  story  of  my 
father's  and  mother's  marriage  and  separation ;  and  how  it 
came  to  pass  that  I  had  been  taken  from  one  to  live  with ' 
the  other;  and  how  the  time  was  now  drawing  nigh  —  it 
wanted  but  two  months  and  ten  days  —  when  I  should  be 
once  more  under  my  father's  guidance,  and  totally  removed 
from  the  influence  of  that  mother  who  loved  me  so  dearly. 

''  We  might  fight  the  matter  in  the  courts,  it  is  true,"  said 
he.  ''  There  are  circumstances  which  might  weigh  with  a  judge 
whether  he  'd  remove  you  from  a  position  of  safety  and  ad- 
vantage to  one  of  danger  and  difficulty ;  but  it  would  be  the 
fight  of  a  weak  purse  against  a  strong  one,  not  to  say  that  it 
would  also  be  the  struggle  of  a  poor  mother's  heart  against 
the  law  of  the  land ;  and  I  have  at  last  persuaded  her  it 
would  be  wiser  and  safer  not  to  embitter  the  relations  with 
your  father,  —  to  submit  to  the  inevitable ;  and  not  im- 
probably you  may  be  permitted  to  see  her  from  time  to 
time,  and,  at  all  events,  to  write  to  her."  It  took  a  long 
time  for  him  to  go  through  what  I  have  so  briefly  set 
down  here;  for  there  were  many  pros  and  cons,  and  he 
omitted  none  of  them ;  and  while  he  studiously  abstained 
from  applying  to  my  father  any  expression  of  censure  or 
reprobation,  he  could  not  conceal  from  me  that  he  re- 
garded him  as  a  very  cold-hearted,  unfeeling  man,  from 
whom  little  kindness  could  be  expected,  and  to  whom  en- 
treaty or  petition  would  be  lost  time.  I  will  not  dwell 
on  the  impression  this  revelation  produced  on  me,  nor  will 
I  linger  on  the  time  that  followed  on  it,  —  the  very  saddest 
of  my  life.  Our  lessons  were  stopped,  —  all  the  occupations 
that  once  filled  the  day  ceased,  —  a  mournful  silence  fell 
upon  us,  as  though  there  was  a  death  in  the  house ;  and 
there  was,  indeed,  the  death  of  that  peaceful  existence  in 
which  we  had  glided  along  for  years,  and  we  sat  grieving 
over  a  time  that  was  to  return  no  more.    My  mother  tried 


WITH  MY  MOTHER.  '        435 

to  employ  herself  in  setting  my  clothes  in  order,  getting 
my  books  decently  bound,  and  enabling  me  in  every  way 
to  make  a  respectable  appearance  in  that  new  life  I  was 
about  to  enter  on ;  but  her  grief  usually  overcame  her  in 
these  attempts,  and  she  would  hang  in  tears  over  the  little 
trunk  that  recalled  every  memory  she  was  so  soon  to 
regard  as  the  last  traces  of  her  child.  Biddy,  who  had 
long,  for  years  back,  ceased  to  torment  or  annoy  me,  came 
back  with  an  arrear  of  bitterness  to  her  mockeries  and  sneers. 
*'I  was  going  to  be  a  lord,  and  I'd  not  know  the  mother 
that  nursed  me  if  I  saw  her  in  the  street !  Fine  clothes  and 
fine  tratement  was  more  to  me  than  love  and  affection ;  signs 
on  it,  I  was  turning  my  back  on  my  own  mother,  and  going 
to  live  with  the  blackguard  "  —  she  did  n't  mince  the  word  — 
••'  that  left  her  to  starve."  These  neatly  turned  compliments 
met  me  at  every  moment,  and  by  good  fortune  served  to  arm 
me  with  a  sort  of  indignant  courage  that  carried  me  well 
through  all  my  perils. 

To  spare  my  poor  mother  the  pain  of  parting,  Mr.  McBride 
—  I  cannot  say  how  judiciously  —  contrived  that  I  should  be 
taken  out  for  a  drive  and  put  on  board  the  packet  bound  for 
Holyhead,  under  the  charge  of  a  courier,  whom  my  father 
had  sent  to  fetch  me,  to  Brussels,  where  he  was  then  living. 
Of  how  I  left  Ireland,  and  journeyed  on  afterwards,  I  know 
nothing ;  it  was  all  confusion  and  turmoil.  The  frequent 
changes  from  place  to  place,  the  noise,  the  new  people, 
the  intense  haste  that  seemed  to  pervade  all  that  went  on, 
addled  me  to  that  degree  that  I  had  few  collected  thoughts 
at  the  time,  and  no  memory  of  them  afterwards. 

From  certain  droppings  of  the  courier,  however,  and  his 
heartily  expressed  joy  as  Brussels  came  in  sight,  I  gathered 
that  I  had  been  a  very  troublesome  charge,  and  refractory  to 
the  very  limit  of  actual  rebellion. 


CHAPTER  in. 

WITH     MY     FATHER. 

At  the  time  I  speak  of,  my  father  dwelt  in  a  villa  near  Brus- 
sels, which  had  been  built  by  or  for  Madame  Malibran.  It 
was  a  strange  though  somewhat  incongruous  edifice,  and 
more  resembled  a  public  building  than  a  private  gentleman's 
residence.  It  stood  in  a  vast  garden,  or  rather  park,  where 
fruit  and  forest  trees  abounded,  and  patches  of  flowers  came 
suddenly  into  view  in  most  unexpected  places.  There  were 
carriage  drives,  too,  so  ingeniously  managed  that  the  visitor 
could  be  led  to  believe  the  space  ten  times  greater  than  it 
was  in  reality.  The  whole  inside  and  out  savored  strongly 
of  the  theatre,  and  every  device  of  good  or  bad  taste  —  the 
latter  largely  predominating  —  had  its  inspiration  in  the 
stage. 

As  we  drove  under  the  arched  entrance  gate,  over  which 
a  crowned  leopard  —  the  Norcott  crest  —  was  proudly  ram- 
pant, I  felt  a  strange  throb  at  my  heai-t  that  proved  the  old 
leaven  was  still  alive  within  me,  and  that  the  feeling  of 
being  the  son  of  a  man  of  rank  and  fortune  had  a  strong 
root  in  my  heart. 

From  the  deep  reverence  of  the  gorgeous  porter,  who  wore 
an  embroidered  leather  belt  over  his  shoulder,  to  the  trim 
propriety  and  order  of  the  noiseless  avenue,  all  bespoke  an 
amount  of  state  and  grandeur  that  appealed  very  powerfully 
to  me,  and  I  can  still  recall  how  the  bronze  lamps  that 
served  to  light  the  approach  struck  me  as  something  wonder- 
fully fine,  as  the  morning's  sun  glanced  on  their  crested 
tops. 

The  carriage  drew  up  at  the  foot  of  a  large  flight  of  mar- 
ble steps,  which  led  to  a  terrace  covered  by  a  long  veranda. 


WITH  MY  FATHER.  437 

Under  the  shade  of  this  two  gentlemen  sat  at  breakfast, 
both  unknown  to  me.  "Whom  have  we  here?"  cried  the 
elder,  a  fat,  middle-aged  man  of  coarse  features  and  stern 
expression,  —  "  whom  have  we  here  ?  " 

The  younger  —  conspicuous  by  a  dressing-gown  and  cap 
that  glittered  with  gold  embroidery  —  looked  lazily  over  the 
top  of  his  newspaper,  and  said,  "That  boy  of  Norcott's,  I 
take  it;  he  was  to  arrive  to-day." 

This  was  the  first  time  I  heard  an  expression  that  my 
ears  were  soon  to  be  well  familiar  to,  and  I  cannot  tell  how 
bitterly  the  words  insulted  me.  "Who  were  they,"  I  asked 
myself,  "who,  under  my  father's  roof,  could  dare  so  to  call 
me!  and  why  was  I  not  styled  Sir  Roger  Norcott's  son,  and 
not  thus  disparagingly,  *  that  boy  of  Norcott's '  ?  " 

I  walked  slowly  up  the  steps  among  these  men  as  defiantly 
as  though  there  was  a  declared  enmity  between  us,  and  was 
proceeding  straight  towards  the  door,  when  the  elder  called 
out,  "Holloa,  youngster,  come  here  and  report  yourself! 
You  've  just  cotiae,  have  n't  you?  " 

"I  have  just  come,"  said  I,  slowly;  "but  when  I  report 
myself  it  shall  be  to  my  father,  Sir  Roger  Norcott." 

"You  got  that,  Hotham,  and  I  must  say  you  deserved  it 
too,"  said  the  younger  in  a  low  tone,  which  my  quick  hear- 
ing, however,  caught. 

"Will  you  have  some  breakfast  with  us?"  said  the  elder, 
with  a  faint  laugh,  as  though  he  enjoyed  the  encounter. 

"No,  I  thank  you,  sir,"  said  I,  stiffly,  and  passed  on  into 
the  house. 

"Master  Digby,"  said  a  smart  little  man  in  black,  who 
for  a  moment  or  two  puzzled  me  whether  he  was  a  guest  or 
a  servant,  "may  I  show  you  to  your  room,  sir?  Sir  Roger 
is  not  up;  he  seldom  rings  for  his  bath  before  one  o'clock; 
but  he  said  he  would  have  it  earlier  to-day." 

"And  what  is  your  name,  pray?" 

"Nixon,  sir.  Mr.  Nixon,  Sir  Roger  is  pleased  to  call 
toe  for  distinction'  sake;  the  lower  servants  require  it." 

"Tell  me  then,  Mr.  Nixon,  who  are  the  two  gentlemen  I 
saw  at  breakfast  outside  ?  " 

"The  stoutish  gentleman,  sir,  is  Captain  Hotham,  of  the 
Royal  Navy ;  the  other,  with  the  Turkish  pipe,  is  Mr.  Clere- 


438  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

mont,  Secretary  to  the  Legation  here.  Great  friends  of  Sir 
Roger's,  sir.  Dine  here  three  or  four  times  a  week,  and 
have  their  rooms  always  kept  for  them." 

The  appearance  of  my  room,  into  which  Nixon  now 
ushered  me,  went  far  to  restore  me  to  a  condition  of  satis- 
faction. It  was  the  most  perfect  little  bedroom  it  is  possible 
to  imagine,  and  Nixon  never  wearied  in  doing  the  honors  of 
displaying  it. 

"Here  's  your  library,  sir.  You  've  only  to  slide  this 
mirror  into  the  wall;  and  here  are  all  your  books.  This 
press  is  your  armory.  Sir  Roger  gave  the  order  himself  for 
that  breech-loader  at  Liege.  This  small  closet  has  your 
bath, — always  ready,  as  you  see,  sir, — hot  and  cold;  and 
that  knob  yonder  commands  the  shower-bath.  It  smells 
fresh  of  paint  here  just  now,  sir,  for  it  was  only  finished 
on  Saturday ;  and  the  men  are  coming  to-day  to  fix  a  small 
iron  staircase  from  your  balcony  down  to  the  garden.  Sir 
Roger  said  he  was  sure  you  would  like  it." 

I  was  silent  for  a  moment,  —  a  moment  of  exquisite 
revery,  —  and  then  I  asked  if  there  were  always  people  vis- 
itors at  the  Villa. 

"I  may  say,  sir,  indeed,  next  to  always.  We  have  n't 
dined  alone  since  March  last." 

"How  many  usually  come  to  dinner?  " 

"Five  or  seven,  sir;  always  an  odd  number.  Seldom 
more  than  seven,  and  never  above  eleven,  except  a  state 
dinner  to  some  great  swell  going  through." 

"No  ladies,  of  course?" 

"Pardon  me,  sir.  The  Countess  Vander  Neeve  dined  here 
yesterday;  Madam  Van  Straaten,  and  Mrs.  Cleremont  — 
Excuse  me,  sir,  there  's  Sir  Roger's  bell.  I  must  go  and 
tell  him  you've  arrived." 

When  Nixon  left  me,  I  sat  for  full  twenty  minutes,  like 
one  walking  out  of  a  trance,  and  asking  myself  how  much 
was  real,  and  how  much  fiction,  of  all  around  me? 

My  eyes  wandered  over  the  room,  and  from  the  beautiful 
little  Gothic  clock  on  the  mantelpiece  to  the  gilded  pineapple 
from  which  my  bed-curtains  descended,  —  everything 
seemed  of  matchless  beauty  to  me.  Could  I  ever  weary  of 
admiring  them  ?    Would  they  seem  to  me  every  morning  as  I 


WITH  MY  FATHER.  439 

awoke  as  tasteful  and  as  elegant  as  now  they  appeared  to 
me  ?  Oh,  if  dear  mamma  could  but  see  them !  If  she  but 
knew  with  what  honor  I  was  received,  would  not  the  thought 
go  far  to  assuage  the  grief  our  separation  cost  her?  And, 
last  of  all,  came  the  thought,  if  she  herself  were  here  to  live 
with  me,  to  read  with  me,  to  be  my  companion  as  she  used 
to  be,  —  could  life  offer  anything  to  compare  with  such  hap- 
piness? And  why  should  not  this  be?  If  papa  really 
should  love  me,  why  might  I  not  lead  him  to  see  to  whom 
I  owed  all  that  made  me  worthy  of  his  love  ? 

''Breakfast  is  served,  sir,  in  the  small  breakfast-room," 
said  a  servant,  respectfully. 

"You  must  show  me  where  that  is,"  said  I,  rising  to  fol- 
low him. 

And  now  we  walked  along  a  spacious  corridor,  and  de- 
scended a  splendid  stair  of  white  marble,  with  gilded  banis- 
ters, and  across  an  octagon  hall,  with  a  pyramid  of  flower- 
ing plants  in  the  centre,  and  into  a  large  gallery  with  armor 
on  the  walls,  that  I  wished  greatly  to  linger  over  and  exam- 
ine, and  then  into  a  billiard-room,  and  at  last  into  the  small 
breakfast-parlor,  where  a  little  table  was  laid  out,  and 
another  servant  stood  in  readiness  to  serve  mew 

"Mr.  Eccles,  sir,  will  be  down  in  a  moment,  if  you*ll  be 
pleased  to  wait  for  him,"  said  the  man. 

"And  who  is  Mr.  Eccles?"  asked  I. 

"The  gentleman  as  is  to  be  your  tutor,  sir,  I  believe," 
replied  he,  timidly;  "and  he  said  perhaps  you  'd  make  the 
tea,  sir." 

"All  right,"  said  I,  opening  the  caddy,  and  proceeding 
to  make  myself  at  home  at  once.     "What  is  here?  " 

"Devilled  kidneys,  sir;  and  this  is  fried  mackerel.  Mr. 
Eccles  takes  oysters;  but  he  won't  have  them  opened  till 
he's  down.     Here  he  is,  sir." 

The  door  was  now  flung  open,  and  a  good-looking  young 
man,  with  a  glass  stuck  in  one  eye,  entered,  and  with  a 
cheery  but  somewhat  affected  voice,  called  out,  — 

"Glad  to  see  you,  Digby,  my  boy;  hope  I  have  not 
starved  you  out  waiting  for  me  ?  " 

"I  'm  very  hungry,  sir,  but  not  quite  starved  out,"  said  I, 
half  amazed  at  the  style  of  man  selected  to  be  my  guide, 


440  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

and  whose  age  at  most  could  not  be  above  three  or  four 
and  twenty. 

''You  haven't  seen  your  father  yet,  of  course,  nor  won't 
these  two  hours.  Yes,  Gilbert,  let  us  have  the  oysters.  I 
always  begin  with  oysters  and  a  glass  of  sauterne ;  and,  let 
me  tell  you,  your  father's  sauterne  is  excellent.  Not  that 
I  counsel  you^  however,  to  start  with  wine  at  breakfast. 
I  have  n't  told  you  that  I  'm  to  be  your  tutor,"  said  he,  fill- 
ing his  glass;  "and  here  's  to  our  future  fellowship." 

I  smiled  and  sipped  my  tea  to  acknowledge  the  toast,  and 
he  went  on,  — 

"You  mustn't  be  afraid  that  I  '11  lean  too  heavily  on  you^ 
Digby,  —  at  least,  at  first.  My  system  is,  never  make  edu- 
cation a  punishment.  There  's  nothing  that  a  gentleman  — 
mind,  I  say  a  gentleman  —  ought  to  know  that  he  cannot 
acquire  as  easily  and  as  pleasantly  as  he  does  field-sports. 
If  ^  man  has  to  live  by  his  wits,  he  must  drudge;  there  's 
no  help  for  it.  And  —  But  here  come  the  oysters.  Ain't 
they  magnificent?  Let  me  give  you  one  piece  of  instruction 
while  the  occasion  serves ;  let  no  one  ever  persuade  you  that 
Colchester  oysters  equal  the  Ostend.  They  have  neither  the 
plumpness  nor  the  juiciness,  and  still  less  have  they  that 
fresh  odor  of  the  sea  that  gives  such  zest  to  appetite.  One 
of  these  days  I  shall  ask  you  what  Horace  says  of  oysters, 
and  where.     You  never  heard  of  Horace,  eh  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir;  I  was  reading  the  'Odes'  when  I  came 
away." 

"  And  with  whom,  pray  ?  "  • 

"With  mamma,  sir." 

"And  do  you  mean  to  say  mamma  knew  Latin?  " 

"Yes,  sir;  she  learned  it  to  teach  me.  She  worked  far 
harder  than  I  did,  and  I  could  never  come  up  with  her. " 

"Ah,  yes,  I  see;  but  all  that  sort  of  learning  —  that 
irregular  study  —  is  a  thing  to  be  grubbed  up.  If  I  were  to 
be  frank  with  you,  Digby,  I  'd  say  I  'd  rather  have  you  in 
total  ignorance  than  with  that  smattering  of  knowledge  a 
mamma's  teaching  is  sure  to  imply.  What  had  you  read 
before  Horace?" 

"'Caesar's  Commentaries,*  sir,  an  *  ^neid '  of  Virgil^ 
two  plays  of  Terence  —  " 


UNIVERSITY 

CF 

WITH  MY  FATHER.  441 

"Any  Greek?  —  anything  of  Euripedes  or  Aristophanes, 
eh?"  asked  he,  mockingly. 

"  No,  sir ;  we  were  to  begin  the  New  Testament  after  the 
holidays;  for  I  had  just  gone  over  the  grammar  twice." 

With  mamma,  of  course  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

He  helped  himself  to  a  cutlet,  and  as  he  poured  the  Har- 
vey's sauce  over  it,  it  was  plain  to  see  that  he  was  not 
thinking  of  what  was  before  him,  but  employed  in  another 
and  different  direction.  After  a  considerable  pause  he 
turned  his  eyes  full  upon  me,  and  with  a  tone  of  far  more 
serious  import  than  he  had  yet  used,  said,  *' We  're  not  very 
long  acquainted,  Digby;  but  I  have  a  trick  of  reading 
people  through  their  faces,  and  I  feel  I  can  trust  you."  He 
waited  for  some  remark  from  me,  but  I  made  none,  and  he 
went  on :  "  With  an  ordinary  boy  of  your  age,  —  indeed,  I 
might  go  farther,  and  say  with  any  other  boy  —  I  'd  not 
venture  on  the  confidence  I  am  now  about  to  make ;  but  a 
certain  instinct  tells  me  I  run  no  danger  in  trusting  you," 

"Is  it  a  secret,  sir?" 

"Well,  in  one  sense  it  is  a.  secret;  but  why  do  you 
ask?" 

"  Because  mamma  told  me  to  avoid  secrets ;  to  have  none 
of  my  own,  and  know  as  little  as  I  could  of  other  people's." 

"An  excellent  rule  in  general,  but  there  are  cases  where  it 
will  not  apply:  this  is  one  of  them,  for  here  the  secret 
touches  your  own  family.  You  are  aware  that  papa  and 
mamma  do  not  live  together?  Don't  flush  up,  Digby;  I  'm 
not  going  to  say  one  word  that  could  hurt  you.  It  is  for 
your  benefit  —  I  might  say  for  your  absolute  safety  —  that  I 
speak  now.  Your  father  has  one  of  the  noblest  natures  a 
man  ever  possessed;  he  is  a  prince  in  generosity,  and  the 
very  soul  of  honor,  and,  except  pride,  I  don't  believe  he 
has  a  fault.  This  same  pride,  however,  leads  him  to  fancy 
he  can  never  do  wrong;  indeed,  he  does  not  admit  that  he 
ever  made  a  mistake  in  his  life,  and,  consequently,  he  does 
not  readily  forgive  those  to  whom  he  imputes  any  disasters 
that  befall  him.  Your  mother's  family  are  included  in  this 
condemned  list, — I  can't  exactly  say  why;  and  for  the 
same  reason,  or  no  reason,  your  mother  herself.     You  must, 


442  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

therefore,  take  especial  care  that  you  never  speak  of  one  of 
these  people." 

"And  mamma?" 

"  Her  name  least  of  all.  There  may  come  a  time  —  in- 
deed, it  is  sure  to  come  —  when  this  difficulty  can  be  got 
over;  but  any  imprudence  now  —  the  smallest  mistake  — 
would  destroy  this  chance.  Of  course  it 's  very  hard  on  you, 
my  poor  fellow,  to  be  debarred  from  the  very  theme  you  'd 
like  best  to  dwell  on;  but  when  you  know  the  danger  — 
not  merely  danger,  but  the  positive  certainty  of  mischief 
—  a  chance  word  might  bring  about,  I  read  you  very  ill,  or 
you  '11  profit  by  my  warning." 

I  bent  my  head  to  mean  assent,  but  I  could  not  speak. 

*'Papa  will  question  you  whether  you  have  been  to  school, 
and  what  books  you  are  reading,  and  your  answer  will  be, 
'  Never  at  school;  had  all  my  lessons  at  home.'  Not  a  word 
more,  mind  that,  Digby.  Say  it  now  after  me,  that  I  may 
see  if  you  can  be  exact  to  a  syllable." 

I  repeated  the  words  correctly,  and  he  patted  me  affection- 
ately on  the  shoulder,  and  said,  — 

''You  and  I  are  sure  to  get  on  well  together.  When  I 
meet  with  a  boy,  who,  besides  being  intelligent,  is  a  born 
gentleman,  I  never  hesitate  about  treating  him  as  my  equal, 
.save  in  that  knowledge  of  life  I  'm  quite  ready  to  share  with 
him.  I  don't  want  to  be  a  Pope  with  my  pupil,  and  say, 
'  You  are  not  to  do  this,  or  think  that, '  and  give  no  reason 
why.  You  '11  always  find  me  ready  to  discuss  with  you,  and 
talk  over  anything  that  puzzles  you.  I  was  not  treated  in 
that  fashion  myself,  and  I  know  well  what  the  repressive 
system  has  cost  me.  You  follow  me,  don't  you,  in  what  I 
■say?" 

'•'Yes,  sir;  I  think  I  understand  it  all." 

Whether  I  looked  as  if  my  words  had  more  meaning  than 
they  expressed,  or  that  some  sort  of  misgiving  was  working 
within  him  that  he  had  been  hasty  in  his  confidence,  I  know 
not;  but  he  arose  suddenly,  and  said,  "I  must  go  and  get  a 
And  with  that  he  left  me. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   VILLA   MAHBRA.N. 

For  some  hours  I  wandered  over  the  house,  admiring  the 
pictures  and  the  bronzes  and  the  statuettes,  and  the  hun- 
dreds of  odd  knick-knacks  of  taste  or  curiosity  that  filled  the 
salons.  The  treasures  of  art  were  all  new  to  me,  and  I 
thought  I  could  never  weary  of  gazing  on  some  grand  land- 
scape by  Both,  or  one  of  those  little  interiors  of  Dutch  life 
by  Ostade  or  Mieris.  It  seemed  to  me  the  very  summit  of 
luxury,  that  all  these  glorious  objects  should  be  there,  await- 
ing as  it  were  the  eye  of  him  who  owned  them,  patient 
slaves  of  his  pleasure,  to  be  rewarded  by,  perhaps,  a  hurried 
glance  as  he  passed.  The  tempered  light,  the  noiseless 
footsteps,  as  one  trod  the  triple-piled  carpet,  the  odor  of 
rich  flowers  everywhere,  imparted  a  dreaminess  to  the  sense 
of  enjoyment  that,  after  long,  long  years,  I  can  recall  and 
almost  revive  by  an  effort  of  memory. 

I  met  no  one  as  I  loitered  through  the  rooms,  for  I  was 
in  a  part  of  the  house  only  opened  on  great  occasions  or 
for  large  receptions ;  and  so  I  strayed  on,  lost  in  wonder- 
ment at  the  extent  and  splendor  of  a  scene  which,  to  my 
untutored  senses,  seemed  of  an  actually  royal  magnificence. 
Having  reached  what  I  believed  to  be  the  limit  of  the  suite 
of  rooms,  I  was  about  to  retrace  my  steps,  when  I  saw  that 
a  small  octagon  tower  opened  from  an  angle  of  the  room, 
though  no  apparent  doorway  led  into  it.  This  puzzle  inter- 
ested me  at  once,  and  I  set  about  to  resolve  it,  if  I  might. 
I  opened  one  of  the  windows  to  inspect  the  tower  on  the 
outside,  and  saw  that  no  stairs  led  up  to  it,  nor  any  appar- 
ent communication  existed  with  the  rest  of  the  house.  I  be- 
thought me  of  the  sliding  mirror  which  in  my  own  room 
concealed  the  bookcase,  and  set  to  work  to  see  if  some 


444  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

similar  contrivance  had  not  been  employed  here;  but  1 
searched  in  vain.  Defeated  and  disappointed,  I  was  turning 
away  when,  passing  my  hand  along  the  margin  of  a  massive 
picture-frame,  I  touched  a  small  button ;  and  as  I  did  so, 
with  a  faint  sound  like  a  wail,  the  picture  moved  slowly, 
like  an  opening  door,  and  disclosed  the  interior  of  the  tower. 
I  entered  at  once,  my  curiosity  now  raised  to  a  point  of  in- 
tensity to  know  what  had  been  so  carefully  and  cunningly 
guarded  from  public  view.  What  a  blank  disappointment 
was  mine !  The  little  room,  about  nine  or  ten  feet  in  diam- 
eter, contained  but  a  few  straw-bottomed  chairs,  and  a 
painted  table  on  which  a  tea-service  of  common  blue-ware 
stood.  A  Dutch  clock  was  on  a  bracket  at  one  side  of  the 
window,  and  a  stuffed  bird  —  a  grouse,  I  believe  —  occupied 
another.  A  straight-backed  old  sofa,  covered  with  a  vulgar 
chintz,  stood  against  the  wall ;  an  open  book,  with  a  broken 
fan  in  the  leaves,  to  mark  the  place,  lay  on  the  sofa.  The 
book  was  "Paul  and  Virginia.  A  common  sheet  almanac 
was  nailed  against  the  wall,  but  over  the  printed  columns 
of  the  months  a  piece  of  white  paper  was  pasted,  on  which, 
in  large  letters,  was  written  "June  11,  18 — .  Dies  in- 
fausta."  I  started.  I  had  read  that  date  once  before  in  my 
mother's  prayer-book,  and  had  learned  it  was  her  marriage- 
day.  As  a  ray  of  sunlight  displays  in  an  instant  every 
object  within  its  beam,  I  at  once  saw  the  meaning  of  every 
detail  around  me.  These  were  the  humble  accessories  of 
that  modest  home  from  which  my  dear  mother  was  taken ; 
these  were  the  grim  reminders  of  the  time  my  father  desired 
to  perpetuate  as  an  undying  sorrow.  I  trembled  to  think 
what  a  nature  I  should  soon  be  confronted  with,  and  how 
terrible  must  be  the  temper  of  a  man  whose  resentments 
asked  for  such  aliment  to  maintain  them!  I  stole  away 
abashed  at  my  own  intrusiveness,  and  feeling  that  I  was 
rightfully  punished  by  the  misery  that  overwhelmed  me. 
How  differently  now  did  all  the  splendor  appear  to  me  as 
I  retraced  my  steps !  how  defiantly  I  gazed  on  that  magnifi- 
cence which  seemed  to  insult  the  poverty  I  had  just  quitted ! 
What  a  contrast  to  the  nurtured  spitefulness  of  his  con- 
duct was  my  poor  mother's  careful  preservation  of  a  picture 
representing  my  father  in  his  uniform.     A  badly  painted 


THE  VILLA  MALIBRAN.  445 

thing  it  was;  but  with  enough  of  likeness  to  recall  him. 
And  as  such,  in  defiance  of  neglect  and  ill-usage  and 
insult,  she  preserved  it,  —  a  memorial,  not  of  happier  days, 
but  of  a  time  when  she  dreamed  of  happiness  to  come. 
While  I  was  thus  thinking,  seeking  in  my  mind  comparisons 
between  them,  which  certainly  redounded  but  little  to  his 
credit,  Nixon  came  up  to  me,  saying,  ''Oh,  Master  Digby, 
we  've  been  looking  for  you  in  every  direction.  Sir  Roger 
has  asked  over  and  over  why  you  have  not  been  to  see  him ; 
and  I  'm  afraid  you  '11  find  him  displeased  at  your  delay." 

"I'm  ready  now,"  said  I,  drily,  and  followed  him. 

My  father  was  in  his  study,  lying  on  a  sofa,  and  cutting 
the  leaves  of  a  new  book  as  I  entered ;  and  he  did  not  inter- 
rupt the  operation  to  offer  me  his  hand. 

"So,  sir,"  said  he,  calmly  and  coldly,  "you  have  taken 
your  time  to  present  yourself  to  me?  Apparently  you  pre- 
ferred making  acquaintance  with  the  house  and  the 
grounds." 

"I  am  very  sorry,  sir,"  I  began;  "but  I  did  not  know  you 
had  risen.     Nixon  told  me  about  one  or  two  —  " 

"Indeed!  I  was  not  aware  that  you  and  Mr.  Nixon  had 
been  discussing  my  habits.  Come  nearer;  nearer  still. 
What  sort  of  dress  is  this?  Is  it  a  smock-frock  you  have 
on?" 

"No,  sir.  It 's  a  blouse  to  keep  my  jacket  clean.  I  have 
got  but  one." 

"And  these  shoes;  are  they  of  your  own  making?  " 

"No,  sir.     I  couldn't  make  even  as  good  as  these." 

"You  are  a  very  poor-looking  object,  I  must  say.  What 
was  Antoine  about  that  he  did  n't,  at  least,  make  you  look 
like  a  gentleman,  eh?     Can  you  answer  me  that?  " 

"No,  sir,  I  cannot." 

"Nor  I,  either,"  said  he,  sighing.  "Have  you  been 
equally  neglected  inside  as  out?  Have  you  learned  to 
read?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"And  to  write?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Write  my  name,  then,  there,  on  that  piece  of  paper,  and 
let  me  see  it." 


446  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

I  drew  nigh,  and  wrote  in  a  full,  bold  hand,  Roger 
Norcott. 

'  *  Why  not  Sir  Roger  Norcott,  boy  ?  Why  not  give  me 
my  name  and  title  too  ?  " 

*'  You  said  your  name,  sir,  and  I  thought  —  " 

* '  No  matter  what  you  thought.  This  literalism  comes  of 
home  breeding,"  muttered  he  to  himself;  *'they  are  made 
truthful  at  the  price  of  being  vulgar.  What  do  you  know 
besides  reading  and  writing?" 

'*  A  little  Latin,  sir,  and  some  French,  and  some  German, 
and  three  books  of  Euclid,  and  the  Greek  grammar  —  " 

'*  There,  there,  that's  more  than  enough.  It  will  tax 
your  tutor's  ingenuity  to  stub  up  all  this  rubbish,  and  pre- 
pare the  soil  for  real  acquirement.  I  was  hoping  I  should 
see  you  a  savage  :  a  fresh,  strong-natured  impulsive  savage  ! 
What  I'm  to  do  with  you,  with  your  little  peddling  knowl- 
edge of  a  score  of  things,  I  can't  imagine.  I  'd  swear  you 
can  neither  ride,  row,  nor  fence,  never  handled  a  cricket-ball 
or  a  single-stick?" 

"  Quite  true,  sir ;  but  I  'd  like  to  do  every  one  of  them." 

' '  Of  course  you  have  been  taught  music  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir;  the  piano,  and  a  little  singing." 

*'  That  completes  it,"  cried  he,  flinging  his  book  from  him. 
"  They  've  been  preparing  you  for  a  travelling  circus,  while 
T  wanted  to  make  you  a  gentleman.  Mind  me  now,  sir,  and 
don't  expect  that  I  ever  repeat  my  orders  to  any  one.  What 
I  say  once  I  mean  to  be  observed.  Let  your  past  life  be 
entirely  forgotten  by  you,  —  a  thing  that  had  no  reality ; 
begin  from  this  day — from  this  very  room  —  a  new  exist- 
ence, which  is  to  have  neither  link  nor  tie  to  what  has  gone 
before  it.  The  persons  you  will  see  here,  their  ways,  their 
manners,  their  tone,  will  be  examples  for  your  imitation ; 
copy  them,  not  servilely  nor  indiscriminately,  but  as  you 
will  find  how  their  traits  will  blend  with  your  own  nature. 
Never  tell  an  untruth,  never  accept  an  insult  without  redress, 
be  slow  about  forming  friendships,  and  where  you  hate,  hate 
thoroughly.  That's  enough  for  the  present.  Ask  Mr. 
Eccles  to  have  the  kindness  to  take  you  to  his  tailor  and 
order  some  clothes.  You  must  dine  alone  till  you  are  suit- 
ably dressed.     After  that  you  shall  come  to  my  table.     One 


THE  VILLA  MALIBRAN.  44T 

thing  more  and  you  may  go :  don't  ever  approach  me  witb 
tales  or  complaints  of  any  one ;  right  yourself  where  you 
can,  and  where  you  cannot,  bear  your  grievance  silently. 
You  can  change  nothing,  alter  nothing,  here;  you  are  a 
guest,  but  a  guest  over  whom  I  exercise  full  control.  If  you 
please  me,  it  will  be  well  for  you ;  if  not,  you  understand  — 
it  will  cost  me  little  to  tell  you  so.  Go.  Go  now."  He 
motioned  me  to  leave  him,  and  I  went.  Straight  to  my  room 
I  went,  and  sat  down  at  once  to  write  it  all  to  mother.  My 
heart  swelled  with  indignation  at  the  way  I  had  been  re- 
ceived, and  a  hundred  times  over  did  I  say  to  myself  that 
there  was  no  poverty,  no  hardship  I  would  not  face  rather 
than  buy  a  life  of  splendor  on  such  ignominious  terms.  Oh, 
if  I  could  but  get  back  again  to  the  little  home  I  had  quitted, 
how  I  would  bless  the  hour  that  restored  me  to  peace  of 
mind  and  self-respect !  As  I  wrote,  my  indignation  warmed 
with  every  line.  I  found  that  my  passion  was  actually  mas- 
tering my  reason.  Better  to  finish  this,  later  on,  —  when  I 
shall  be  cooler,  thought  I ;  and  I  walked  to  my  window  and 
opened  it.  There  were  voices  of  people  speaking  in  the 
paddock  below,  and  I  leaned  over  the  balcon}^  and  saw  the 
two  men  I  had  seen  at  breakfast,  seated  on  rustic  chairs, 
watching  a  young  horse  being  broken  to  the  saddle.  The 
well-worn  ring  in  the  grass  showed  that  this  spot  was 
reserved  for  such  purposes,  nor  was  I  displeased  to  know 
that  such  a  source  of  interest  lay  so  near  to  me. 

''Isn't  he  one  of  your  Mexicans,  George?"  asked  Cap- 
tain Hotham. 

"  No,  sir,  he's  a  Hungarian-bred  'un.  Master  calls  him  a 
Jucker,  whatever  that  is." 

''Plenty  of  action,  anyhow." 

"  A  little  too  much,  sir;  that's  his  fault.  He's  a-comin' 
now,  and  it 's  all  they  can  do  to  keep  him  going  over  the 
park  paling.  Take  this  one  back,"  said  he  to  the  groom, 
who  was  ringing  a  heavy-shouldered,  ungainly  colt  in  the 
ring. 

"You'll  not  gain  much  credit  by  that  animal,  George," 
said  Cleremont,  as  he  lighted  a  cigar. 

"  He  ain't  a  beauty,  sir;  he  's  low  before,  and  he  *s  cow- 
hocked  behind;  but  Sir  Roger  says  he's  the  best  blood  in 


448  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

Norfolk.  Take  care,  take  care,  sir !  the  skittish  devil  never 
knows  where  he  '11  send  his  hind-legs.  Steady,  Tom,  don't 
check  him  :  why,  he 's  sweating  as  if  he  had  been  round  the 
two-mile  course." 

The  animal  that  called  for  this  criticism  was  a  dark  chest- 
nut, but  so  bathed  in  sweat  as  to  appear  almost  black. 
He  was  one  of  those  cross  breeds  between  the  Arab  and 
the  western  blood,  that  gain  all  the  beauty  of  head  and  crest 
and  straightly  formed  croup,  and  yet  have  length  of  body 
and  depth  of  rib  denied  to  the  pure  Arab.  To  my  thinking 
he  was  the  most  perfect  creature  I  had  ever  seen,  and  as  he 
bounded  and  plunged,  there  was  a  supple  grace  and  pliancy 
about  him  indescribably  beautiful. 

George  now  unloosened  the  long  reins  which  were  attached 
to  the  heavy  surcingle,  and  after  walking  the  animal  two  or 
three  times  round  the  circle,  suffered  him  to  go  free.  As  if 
astonished  at  his  liberty,  the  young  creature  stood  still  for 
a  minute  or  two,  and  sniffed  the  air,  and  then  gave  one 
wild  bound  and  headlong  plunge,  as  though  he  were  going 
straight  into  the  earth ;  after  which  he  looked  timidly  about 
him,  and  then  walked  slowly  along  in  the  track  worn  by  the 
others. 

*'He's  far  quieter  than  the  last  time  I  saw  him,"  said 
Hotham. 

*'  He's  gettin'  more  sense  every  day,  sir,"  replied  George ; 
*'  he  don't  scratch  his  head  with  his  hind-leg  now,  sir,  and  he 
don't  throw  hisself  down  neither." 

"  He  has  n't  given  up  biting,  I  see,"  said  Cleremont. 

*'  No,  sir;  and  they  tell  me  them  breed  never  does;  but 
it's  only  play,  sir." 

'*  I'll  give  you  six  months  before  you  can  call  him  fit  to 
ride,  George." 

"My  name  ain't  Spunner,  sir,  if  the  young  gent  as  come 
yesterday  don't  back  him  in  six  weeks'  time." 

"And  is  it  for  the  boy  Norcott  intends  him?"  asked 
Cleremont  of   Hotham. 

"So  he  told  me  yesterday;  and  though  I  warned  him 
that  he  had  n't  another  boy  if  that  fellow  should  come  to 
grief,  he  only  said,  '  If  he  's  got  my  blood  in  him,  he  '11 
keep  his  saddle ;  and  if  he  has  n't,  he  had  better  make  room 
for  another.*" 


THE  VILLA  MALIBRAN.  449 

''Ain't  he  a-going  beautiful  now?"  cried  George,  as  the 
animal  swung  slowly  along  at  a  gentle  trot,  every  step  of 
which  was  as  measured  as  clockwork. 

"  You'll  have  to  teach  the  youngster  also,  George,"  said 
Hotham.     *'  I  'm  sure  he  never  backed  a  horse  in  his  life." 

"Nay,  sir,  he  rode  very  pretty  indeed  when  he  was  six 
years  old.  I  didn't  put  him  on  a  Shelty,  or  one  of  the 
hard-mouthed  'uns,  but  a  nice  little  lively  French  mare, 
that  reared  up  the  moment  he  bore  hard  on  her  bit;  so 
that  he  learned  to  sit  on  his  beast  without  holdin'  on  by 
the  bridle." 

"He's  a  loutish  boy,"  said  Cleremont  to  the  Captain. 
"  I  '11  wager  what  you  like  they'll  not  make  a  horseman  of 
him." 

"Eccles  says  he's  a  confounded  pedant,"  said  the  other; 
"  that  he  wanted  to  cap  Horace  with  him  at  breakfast." 

"  Poor  Bob  !  that  was  n't  exactly  his  line  ;  but  he  'd  hold 
his  own  in  Balzac  or  Fred  Soulie." 

' '  Oh,  now  I  see  what  Norcott  was  driving  at  when  he 
«aid,  '  I  wanted  the  stuff  to  make  a  gentleman,  and  they  've 
sent  me  the  germ  of  a  school-usher.'  I  said,  '  Send  him 
to  sea  with  me.  I  shall  be  afloat  in  March,  and  I  '11  take 
him.' " 

' '  "Well,  what  answer  did  he  make  you  ?  " 

"It  wasn't  a  civil  one,"  said  the  other,  gruffly.  "He 
said,  '  You  misapprehend  me,  Hotham.  A  sea-captain  is 
only  a  boatswain  in  epaulettes.  I  mean  the  boy  to  be  a 
gentleman.* " 

"  And  you  bore  that?  " 

"  Yes.  Just  as  well  as  you  bore  his  telling  you  at  dinner 
on  Sunday  last  that  a  Legation  secretary  was  a  cross 
between  an  old  lady  and  a  clerk  in  the  Customs." 

"A  man  who  scatters  impertinences  broadcast  is  only 
known  for  the  merits  of  his  cook  or  his  cellar." 

"  Both  of  which  are  excellent." 

"  Shall  I  send  him  in,  sir?"  asked  George,  as  he  patted 
the  young  horse  and  caressed  him. 

"  Well,  Eccles,"  cried  Hotham,  as  the  tutor  lounged  lazily 
up,  "what  do  you  say  to  the  mount  they're  going  to  put 
your  pupil  on?" 

29 


450  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

'*  I  wish  they  *d  wait  a  bit.  I  shall  not  be  ready  for 
orders  till  next  spring,  and  I  'd  rather  they  'd  not  break  his 
neck  before  February  or  March." 

*'Has  Norcott  promised  you  the  presentation,  Bob?  " 

*'No.  He  can't  make  up  his  mind  whether  he  '11  give  it 
to  me  or  to  a  Plymouth  Brother,  or  to  that  fellow  that  was 
taken  up  at  Salford  for  blasphemy,  and  who  happens  to  be 
in  full  orders." 

*'With  all  his  enmity  to  the  Established  Chui'ch,  I  think 
he  might  be  satisfied  with  you,"  said  Cleremont. 

*'Very  neat,  and  very  polite  too,"  said  Eccles;  "but  that 
this  is  the  Palace  of  Truth,  I  might  feel  nettled." 

''Is  it,  by  Jove?"  cried  Hotham.  "Then  it  must  be  in 
the  summer  months,  when  the  house  is  shut  up.  Who  ha» 
got  a  strong  cigar?  These  Cubans  of  Norcott's  have  no 
flavor.     It  must  be  close  on  luncheon-time." 

"I  can't  join  you,  for  I've  to  go  into  town,  and  get  my 
young  bear  trimmed,  and  his  nails  cut.  '  Make  him  present- 
able,' Norcott  said,  and  I  've  had  easier  tasks  to  do." 

So  saying,  Eccles  "moved  off  in  one  direction,  while 
Hotham  and  Cleremont  strolled  away  in  another;  and  I 
was  left  to  my  own  reflections,  which  were  not  few. 


CHAPTER   V. 


A    FIRST   DINNER-PARTY. 


I  "WAS  made  *' presentable  '*  in  due  time,  and  on  the  fifth  day 
after  my  arrival  made  my  appearance  at  the  dinner-table. 
"Sit  there,  sir,"  said  my  father,  "opposite  me."  And  I 
was  not  sorry  to  perceive  that  an  enormous  vase  with  flowers 
effectually  screened  me  from  his  sight.  The  post  of  honor 
thus  accorded  me  was  a  sufficient  intimation  to  my  father's 
guests  how  he  intended  me  to  be  treated  by  them ;  and  as 
they  were  without  an  exception  all  hangers-on  and  depend- 
ants, —  men  who  dined  badly  or  not  at  all  when  uninvited 
to  his  table,  —  they  were  marvellously  quick  in  understand- 
ing that  I  was  to  be  accepted  as  his  heir,  and,  after  himself, 
the  person  of  most  consideration  there. 

Besides  the  three  individuals  I  have  already  mentioned, 
our  party  included  two  foreigners,  —  Baron  Steinmetz,  an 
aide-de-camp  of  the  King,  and  an  Italian  duke,  San  Gio- 
vanni. The  Duke  sat  on  my  father's  right,  the  Baron  on 
mine.  The  conversation  during  dinner  was  in  French, 
which  I  followed  imperfectly,  and  was  considerably  relieved 
on  discovering  that  the  German  spoke  French  with  difficulty, 
and  blundered  over  his  genders  as  hopelessly  as  I  should 
have  done  had  I  attempted  to  talk.  "Ach  Gott,"  muttered 
he  to  himself  in  German,  "when  people  were  seeking  for  a 
common  language,  why  did  n't  they  take  one  that  all  human- 
ity could  pronounce  ? " 

"So  meine  ich  auch,  Herr  Baron,"  cried  I;  "I  quite  agree 
with  you." 

He  turned  towards  me  with  a  look  of- positive  affection, 
on  seeing  I  knew  German,  and  we  both  began  to  talk  to- 
gether at  once  with  freedom. 


452  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"What 's  the  boy  saying?  "  cried  my  father,  as  he  caught 
the  sounds  of  some  glib  speech  of  mine.  "Don't  let  him 
bore  you  with  his  bad  French,  Steinmetz." 

"He  is  charming  me  with  his  admirable  German,"  said 
the  Baron.  "I  can't  tell  when  I  have  met  a  more  agreeable 
companion." 

This  was,  of  course,  a  double  flattery,  for  my  German  was 
very  bad,  and  my  knowledge  on  any  subject  no  better;  but 
the  fact  did  not  diminish  the  delight  the  praise  afforded  me. 

"Do  you  know  German,  Digby?"  asked  my  father. 

"A  little,  — a  very  little,  sir." 

"The  fellow  would  say  he  knew  Sanscrit  if  you  asked 
him,"  whispered  Hotham  to  Eccles;  but  my  sharp  ears 
overheard  him. 

"Come,  that's  better  than  I  looked  for,"  said  my  father. 
"  What  do  you  say,  Eccles  ?     Is  there  stuff  there  ?  " 

"Plenty,  Sir  Roger;  enough  and  to  spare.  I  count  on 
Digby  to  do  me  great  credit  yet." 

"What  career  do  you  mean  your  son  to  follow?"  asked 
the  Italian,  while  he  nodded  to  me  over  his  wine-glass  in 
most  civil  recognition. 

"I'll  not  make  a  sailor  of  him,  like  that  sea-wolf  yon- 
der; nor  a  diplomatist,  like  my  silent  friend  in  the  corner. 
Neither  shall  he  be  a  soldier  till  British  armies  begin  to 
do  something  better  than  hunt  out  illicit  stills  and  protect 
process-servers. " 

"A  politician,  perhaps?" 

"Certainly  not,  sir.  There  's  no  credit  in  belonging  to  a 
Parliament  brought  down  to  the  meridian  of  soap-boilers 
and  bankrupt  bill-brokers." 

"There's  the  Church,  Sir  Roger,"  chimed  in  Eccles. 

"There  's  the  Pope's  Church,  with  some  good  prizes  in  the 
wheel;  but  your  branch.  Master  Bob,  is  a  small  concern, 
and  it  is  trembling,  besides.  No.  I  '11  make  him  none  of 
these.  It  is  in  our  vulgar  passion  for  money-getting  we 
throw  our  boys  into  this  or  that  career  In  life,  and  we  narrow 
to  the  stupid  formula  of  some  profession  abilities  that  were 
meant  for  mankind.  I  mean  Digby  to  deal  with  the  world ; 
and  to  fit  him  for  the  task,  he  shall  learn  as  much  of  human 
nature  as  I  can  afford  to  teach  him." 


A  FIRST  DINNER-PARTY.  453 

*'Ah,  there's  great  truth  in  that,  very  great  truth;  very 
wise  and  very  original  too,"  were  the  comments  that  ran 
round  the  board. 

Excited  by  this  theme,  and  elated  by  his  success,  my 
father  went  on :  — 

*'If  you  want  a  boy  to  ride,  you  don't  limit  him  to  the 
quiet  hackney  that  neither  pulls  nor  shies,  neither  bolts  nor 
plunges ;  and  so,  if  you  wish  your  son  to  know  his  fellow- 
men,  you  don't  keep  him  in  a  charmed  circle  of  deans  and 
archdeacons,  but  you  throw  him  fearlessly  into  contact 
with  old  debauchees  like  Hotham,  or  abandoned  scamps  of 
the  style  of  Cleremont,"  —  and  here  he  had  to  wait  till  the 
laughter  subsided  to  add,  *'and,  last  of  all,  you  take  care  to 
provide  him  with  a  finishing  tutor  like  Eccles." 

"I  knew  your  turn  was  coming.  Bob,"  whispered  Hotham; 
but  still  all  laughed  heartily,  well  satisfied  to  stand  ridicule 
themselves  if  others  were  only  pilloried  with  them. 

When  dinner  was  over,  we  sat  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour, 
not  more,  and  then  adjourned  to  coffee  in  a  small  room  that 
seemed  half  boudoir,  half  conservatory.  As  I  loitered 
about,  having  no  one  to  speak  to,  I  found  myself  at  last 
in  a  little  shrubbery,  through  which  a  sort  of  labyrinth 
meandered.  It  was  a  taste  of  the  day  revived  from  olden 
times,  and  amazed  me  much  by  its  novelty.  While  I  was 
puzzling  myself  to  find  out  the  path  that  led  out  of  the  en- 
tanglement, I  heard  a  voice  I  knew  at  once  to  be  Hotham's, 
saying,  — 

"Look  at  that  boy  of  Norcott's:  he's  not  satisfied  with 
the  imbroglio  within  doors,  but  he  must  go  out  to  mystify 
himself  with  another." 

"I  don't  much  fancy  that  young  gentleman,"  said  Clere- 
mont. 

"And  I  only  half.  Bob  Eccles  says  we  have  all  made  a 
precious  mistake  in  advising  Norcott  to  bring  him  back." 

"Yet  it  was  our  only  chance  to  prevent  it.  Had  we  op- 
posed the  plan,  he  was  sure  to  have  determined  on  it. 
There's  nothing  for  it  but  your  notion,  Hotham;  let  him 
send  the  brat  to  sea  with  you." 

"Yes,  I  think  that  would  do  it."  And  now  they  had 
walked  out  of  earshot,  and  I  heard  no  more. 


454  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

If  I  was  not  much  reassured  by  these  droppings,  I  was 
far  more  moved  by  the  way  in  which  I  came  to  hear  them. 
Over  and  over  had  my  dear  mother  cautioned  me  against  lis- 
tening to  what  was  not  meant  for  me;  and  here,  simply 
because  I  found  myself  the  topic,  I  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  to  learn  how  men  would  speak  of  me.  I  remem- 
bered well  the  illustration  by  which  my  mother  warned  me 
as  to  the  utter  uselessness  of  the  sort  of  knowledge  thus 
gained.  She  told  me  of  a  theft  some  visitor  had  made  at 
Abbotsford,  —  the  object  stolen  being  a  signet-ring  Lord 
Byron  had  given  to  Sir  Walter.  The  man  who  stole  this 
could  never  display  the  treasure  without  avowing  himself 
a  thief.  He  had,  therefore,  taken  what  from  the  very 
moment  of  the  fraud  became  valueless.  He  might  gaze  on 
it  in  secret  with  such  pleasure  as  his  self-accusings  would 
permit.  He  might  hug  himself  with  the  thought  of  posses- 
sion ;  but  how  could  that  give  pleasure,  or  how  drown  the 
everlasting  shame  the  mere  sight  of  the  object  must  revive? 
So  would  it  be,  my  mother  said,  with  him  who  unlawfully 
possessed  himself  of  certain  intelligence  which  he  could  not 
employ  without  being  convicted  of  the  way  he  gained  it. 
The  lesson  thus  illustrated  had  not  ceased  to  be  remembered 
by  me ;  and  though  I  tried  all  my  casuistry  to  prove  that  I 
listened  without  intention,  almost  without  being  aware  of  it, 
I  was  shocked  and  grieved  to  find  how  soon  I  was  forgetting 
the  precepts  she  had  labored  so  hard  to  impress  upon  me. 

She  had  also  said,  "By  the  same  rule  which  would  compel 
you  to  restore  to  its  owner  what  you  had  become  possessed 
of  wrongfully,  you  are  bound  to  let  him  you  have  acciden- 
tally overheard  know  to  what  extent  you  are  aware  of  his 
thoughts." 

"This  much,  at  least,  I  can  do,"  said  I:  "I  can  tell  these 
gentlemen  that  I  heard  a  part  of  their  conversation." 

I  walked  about  for  nigh  an  hour  revolving  these  things 
in  my  head,  and  at  last  returned  to  the  house.  As  I  entered 
the  drawing-room,  I  was  struck  by  the  silence.  My  father, 
Cleremont,  and  the  two  foreigners  were  playing  whist  at  one 
end  of  the  room,  Hotham  and  Eccles  were  seated  at  chess 
at  another.  Not  a  word  was  uttered  save  some  brief  de- 
mand of  the  game,  or  a  murmured  "check,"  by  the  chess- 


A  FIRST  DINNER-PARTY.  455 

players.  Taking  my  place  noiselessly  beside  these  latter,  I 
watched  the  board  eagerly,  to  try  and  acquire  the  moves. 

*'Do  you  understand  the  game?  "  whispered  Hotham. 

*'No,  sir,'*  said  I,  in  the  same  cautious  tone. 

"I  '11  show  you  the  moves,  when  this  party  is  over."  And 
I  muttered  my  thanks  for  the  courtesy. 

''This  is  intolerable!"  cried  out  my  father.  "That 
confounded  whispering  is  far  more  distracting  than  any 
noise.  I  have  lost  all  count  of  my  game.  I  say,  Eccles, 
why  is  not  that  boy  in  bed  ?  " 

"I  thought  you  said  he  might  sup.  Sir  Roger." 

''If  I  did,  it  was  because  I  thought  he  knew  how  to  con- 
duct himself.     Take  him  away  at  once." 

And  Eccles  rose,  and  with  more  kindness  than  I  had  ex- 
pected from  him,  said,  "Come,  Digby,  I'll  go  too,  for  we 
have  both  to  be  early  risers  to-morrow." 

Thus  ended  my  first  day  in  public,  and  I  have  no  need  to 
say  what  a  strange  conflict  filled  my  head  that  night  as  I 
dropped  off  to  sleep. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HOW    THE    DAYS    WENT    OVER. 

If  I  give  one  day  of  my  life,  I  give,  with  very  nearly  exact- 
ness, the  unbroken  course  of  my  existence.  I  rose  very 
early  —  hours  ere  the  rest  of  the  household  was  stirring  —  ta 
work  at  my  lessons,  which  Mr.  Eccles  apportioned  for  me 
with  a  liberality  that  showed  he  had  the  highest  opinion  of 
my  abilities,  or  —  as  I  discovered  later  on  to  be  the  truth  — 
a  profound  indifference  about  them.  Thus,  a  hundred  lines 
of  Virgil,  thirty  of  Xenophon,  three  propositions  of  Euclid, 
with  a  sufficient  amount  of  history,  geography,  and  logic, 
would  be  an  ordinary  day's  work.  It  is  fair  I  should  own 
that  when  the  time  of  examination  came,  I  found  him 
usually  imbibing  seltzer  and  curaQoa,  with  a  wet  towel  round 
his  head ;  or,  in  his  robuster  moments,  practising  the  dumb 
bells  to  develop  his  muscles.  So  that  the  interrogatories 
were  generally  in  this  wise :  — 

*'How  goes  it,  Digby?    What  of  the  Homer,  eh?" 

**It's  Xenophon,  sir." 

*'To  be  sure  it  is.  I  was  forgetting,  as  a  man  might  who 
had  my  headache.  And,  by  the  way,  Digby,  why  will  your 
father  give  Burgundy  at  supper  instead  of  Bordeaux  ?  Some 
one  must  surely  have  told  him  accidentally  it  was  a  deadly 
poison,  for  he  adheres  to  it  with  desperate  fidelity." 

"I  believe  I  know  my  Greek,  sir,"  would  I  say,  modestly, 
to  recall  him  to  the  theme. 

**0f  course  you  do;  you'd  cut  a  sorry  figure  here  this 
morning  if  you  did  not  know  it.  No,  sir;  I  'm  not  the  man 
to  enjoy  your  father's  confidence,  and  take  his  money,  and 
betray  my  trust.  His  words  to  me  were,  *  Make  him  a. 
gentleman,  Eccles.  I  could  find  scores  of  fellows  to  cram 
him  with  Greek  particles  and  double  equations,  but  I  want 


HOW  THE  DAYS  WENT  OVER.  45 T 

the  man  who  can  turn  out  the  perfect  article,  —  the  gentle- 
man.' Come  now,  what  relations  subsisted  between  Cyrus 
and  Xenophon  ?  ** 

''Xenophon  coached  him,  sir." 

''So  he  did.  Just  strike  a  light  for  me.  My  head  is. 
splitting  for  want  of  a  cigar.  You  may  have  a  cigarette 
too.  I  don't  object.  Virgil  we  '11  keep  till  to-morrow. 
Virgil  was  a  muff,  after  all.  Virgil  was  a  decentish  sort  of 
Martin  Tupper,  Digby.  He  had  no  wit,  no  repartee,  no 
smartness;  he  prosed  about  ploughs  and  shepherds,  like  a 
maudlin  old  squire ;  or  he  told  a  very  shady  sort  of  anecdote 
about  Dido,  which  I  always  doubted  should  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  youth.  Horace  is  free,  too,  a  thought  too  free; 
but  he  could  n't  help  it.  Horace  lived  the  same  kind  of  life 
we  do  here,  a  species  of  roast-partridge  and  pretty  woman 
sort  of  life ;  but  then  he  was  the  gentleman  always.  If  old 
Flaccus  had  lived  now,  he  'd  have  been  pretty  much  like 
Bob  Eccles,  and  putting  in  his  divinity  lectures  perhaps. 
By  the  way,  I  hope  your  father  won't  go  and  give  away  that 
small  rectory  in  Kent.  '  We  who  live  to  preach,  must 
preach  to  live.'  That  is  n't  exactly  the  line,  but  it  will  do. 
Pulvis  et  umbra  sumus,  Digby ;  and  take  what  care  we  may 
of  ourselves,  we  must  go  back,  as  the  judges  say,  to  the 
place  from  whence  we  came.  There,  now,  you  've  had  classi- 
cal criticism,  sound  morality,  worldly  wisdom,  and  the  rest 
of  it;  and,  with  your  permission,  we'll  pack  up  the  books, 
and  stand  prorogued  till  —  let  me  see  —  Saturday  next. " 

Of  course  I  moved  no  amendment,  and  went  my  way 
rejoicing. 

From  that  hour  I  was  free  to  follow  my  own  inclinations, 
which  usually  took  a  horsey  turn ;  and  as  the  stable  offered 
several  mounts,  I  very  often  rode  six  hours  a  day.  Hotham 
was  always  to  be  found  in  the  pistol-gallery  about  four  of 
an  afternoon,  and  I  usually  joined  him  there,  and  speedily 
became  more  than  his  match.' 

"Well,  youngster,"  he  would  say,  when  beaten  and  irri- 
table, "I  can  beat  your  head  off  at  billiards,  anyhow." 

But  I  was  not  long  in  robbing  him  of  even  this  boast,  and 
in  less  than  three  months  I  could  defy  the  best  player  in  the 
house.     The  fact  was,  I  had  in  a  remarkable  degree  that 


458  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

small  talent  for  games  of  every  kind  which  is  a  speciality 
with  certain  persons.  I  could  not  only  learn  a  game 
quickly,  but  almost  always  attain  considerable  skill  in  it. 

*'So,  sir,"  said  my  father  to  me  one  day  at  dinner,  — and 
nothing  was  more  rare  than  for  him  to  address  a  word  to 
me,  and  I  was  startled  as  he  did  so,  — ''so,  sir,  you  are 
going  to  turn  out  an  Admirable  Crichton  on  my  hands,  it 
seems.  I  hear  of  nothing  but  your  billiard-playing,  your 
horsemanship,  and  your  cricketing,  while  Mr.  Eccles  tells 
me  that  your  progress  with  him  is  equally  remarkable." 

He  stopped  and  seemed  to  expect  me  to  make  some  rejoin- 
der ;  but  I  could  not  utter  a  word,  and  felt  overwhelmed  at 
the  observation  and  notice  his  speech  had  drawn  upon 
me. 

"It'^s  better  I  should  tell  you  at  once,"  resumed  my  father, 
"that  I  dislike  prodigies.  I  dislike  because  I  distrust  them. 
The  fellow  who  knows  at  fourteen  what  he  might  reason- 
ably have  known  at  thirty  is  not  unlikely  to  stop  short  at 
fifteen  and  grow  no  more.  I  don't  wish  to  be  personal, 
but  I  have  heard  it  said  Cleremont  was  a  very  clever  boy." 

The  impertinence  of  this  speech,  and  the  laughter  it  at 
once  excited,  served  to  turn  attention  away  from  me;  but, 
through  the  buzz  and  murmur  around,  I  overheard  Cleremont 
say  to  Hotham,  "I  shall  pull  him  up  short  one  of  these 
days,  and  you  '11  see  an  end  of  all  this." 

*'Now,"  continued  my  father,  "if  Eccles  had  told  me  that 
the  boy  was  a  skilful  hand  at  sherry-cobbler,  or  a  rare 
judge  of  a  Cuban  cigar,  I  'd  have  reposed  more  faith  in  the 
assurance  than  when  he  spoke  of  his  classics." 

"He  ain't  bad  at  a  gin-sling  with  bitters,  that  I  must 
say,"  said  Eccles,  whose  self-control  or  good-humor,  or 
mayhap  some  less  worthy  trait,  always  carried  him  success- 
fully over  a  difficulty. 

"So,  sir,"  said  my  father,  turning  again  on  me,  "the 
range  of  your  accomplishments  is  complete.  You  might 
be  a  tapster  or  a  jockey.  When  the  nobility  of  France  came 
to  ruin  in  the  Revolution,  the  best  blood  of  the  kingdom 
became  barbers  and  dancing-masters:  so  that  when  some 
fine  morning  that  gay  gentleman  yonder  will  discover  that 
he  is  a  beggar,  he  '11  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  a  calling 


HOW  THE  DAYS  WENT  OVER.  459 

to  suit  his  tastes,  and  square  with  his  abilities.  What 's 
Hotham  grumbling  about?  Will  any  one  interpret  him  for 
me?" 

"Hotham  is  saying  that  this  claret  is  corked,"  said  the 
sea-captain,  with  a  hoarse  loud  voice. 

*'Bottled  at  home!  "  said  my  father,  "and,  like  your  own 
education,  Hotham,  spoiled  for  a  beggarly  economy." 

"I'm  glad  you 've  got  it,"  muttered  Cleremont,  whose  eyes 
glistened  with  malignant  spite.  "I  have  had  enough  of 
this;  I  'm  for  coffee,"  and  he  arose  as  he  spoke. 

"Has  Cleremont  left  us?"  asked  my  father. 

"Yes;  that  last  bottle  has  finished  him.  I  told  you  be- 
fore, Nixon  knows  nothing  about  wine.  I  saw  that  hogs- 
head lying  bung  up  for  eight  weeks  before  it  was  drawn  off 
for  bottling." 

*'Why  didn't  you  speak  to  him  about  it,  then? " 

"And  be  told  that  I'm  not  his  master,  eh?  You  don't 
seem  to  know,  Norcott,  that  you  've  got  a  houseful  of  the 
most  insolent  servants  in  Christendom.  Cleremont' s  wife 
wanted  the  chestnuts  yesterday  in  the  phaeton,  and  George 
refused  her:  she  might  take  the  cobs,  or  nothing." 

"Quite  true,"  chimed  in  Eccles;  "and  the  fellow  said, 
*I  'm  a- taking  the  young  horses  out  in  the  break,  and  if 
the  missis  wants  to  see  the  chestnuts,  she  'd  better  come 
with  me.' " 

"And  as  to  a  late  breakfast  now,  it's  quite  impossible; 
they  delay  and  delay  till  they  run  you  into  luncheon," 
growled  Hotham. 

"They  serve  me  my  chocolate  pretty  regularly,"  said  my 
father,  negligently,  and  he  arose  and  strolled  out  of  the 
room.  As  he  went,  he  slipped  his  arm  within  mine,  and 
said,  in  a  half-whisper,  "I  suppose  it  will  come  to  this,  — 
I  shall  have  to  change  my  friends  or  my  household.  Which 
would  you  advise  ?  " 

"I'd  say  the  friends,  sir." 

"So  should  I,  but  that  they  would  not  easily  find  another 
place.  There,  go  and  see  is  the  billiard-room  lighted.  I 
want  to  see  you  play  a  game  with  Cleremont." 

Cleremont  was  evidently  sulking  under  the  sarcasm  passed 
on  him,  and  took  up  his  cue  to  play  with  a  bad  grace. 


460  THAT  BOY  OF  NOKCOTT'S. 

*' Who  will  have  five  francs  on  the  party?  "  said  my  father* 
"I  *m  going  to  back  the  boy." 

"Make  it  pounds,  Norcott,"  said  Hotham. 

**I'll  give  you  six  to  five,  in  tens,"  said  Cle^-emont  to  my 
father.     * '  Will  you  take  it  ?  " 

I  was  growing  white  and  red  by  turns  all  this  time.  I 
was  terrified  at  the  thought  that  money  was  to  be  staked  on 
my  play,  and  frightened  by  the  mere  presence  of  my  father 
at  the  table. 

"The  youngster  is  too  nervous  to  play.     Don't  let  him, 
Norcott,"  said  Hotham,  with  a  kindness  I  had  not  given  him' 
credit  for. 

"Give  me  the  cue,  Digby;  I  '11  take  your  place,"  said  my 
father;  and  Cleremont  and  Hotham  both  drew  nigh,  and 
talked  to  him  in  a  low  tone. 

"Eight  and  the  stroke  then  be  it,"  said  my  father,  "and 
the  bet  in  fifties."  The  others  nodded,  and  Cleremont 
began  the  game. 

I  could  not  have  believed  I  could  have  suffered  the 
amount  of  intense  anxiety  that  game  cost  me.  Had  my  life 
been  on  the  issue,  I  do  not  think  I  could  have  gone  through 
greater  alternations  of  hope  and  fear  than  now  succeeded 
in  my  heart.  Cleremont  started  with  eight  points  odds,  and 
made  thirty-two  off  the  balls  before  my  father  began  to  play. 
He  now  took  his  place,  and  by  the  first  stroke  displayed  a 
perfect  mastery  of  the  game.  There  was  a  sort  of  languid 
grace,  an  indolent  elegance  about  all  he  did,  that  when  the 
stroke  required  vigor  or  power  made  me  tremble  for  the 
result;  but  somehow  he  imparted  the  exact  amount  of 
force  needed,  and  the  balls  moved  about  here  and  there  a» 
though  obedient  to  some  subtle  instinct  of  which  the  cue 
gave  a  mere  sign.  He  scored  forty-two  points  in  a  few 
minutes,  and  then  drawing  himself  up,  said,  "There  's  an 
eight-stroke  now  on  the  table.  I  '11  give  any  one  three  hun- 
dred Naps  to  two  that  I  do  it." 

None  spoke.  "Or  I  '11  tell  you  what  I  '11  do.  I  '11  take 
fifty  from  each  of  you  and  draw  the  game ! "  Another  as 
complete  silence  ensued.  "Or  here  's  a  third  proposition. 
Give  me  fifty  between  you,  and  I  '11  hand  over  the  cue  to  the 
boy;  he  shall  finish  the  game." 


HOW  THE  DAYS  WENT  OVER.  461 

*'0h,  no,  sir!  I  beg  you  —  I  entreat —  "  I  began;  but  al- 
ready, "Done,"  had  been  loudly  uttered  by  both  together, 
and  the  bet  was  ratified. 

''  Don't  be  nervous,  boy,"  said  my  father,  handing  me  his 
cue.  ''  You  see  what 's  on  the  balls.  You  cannon  and  hold 
the  white,  and  land  the  red  in  the  middle  pocket.  If  you 
can't  do  the  brilliant  thing,  and  finish  the  game  with  an 
eight  stroke,  do  the  safe  one,  —  the  cannon  or  the  hazard. 
But,  above  all,  don't  lose  your  stroke,  sir:  Mind  that,  for 
I've  a  pot  of  money  on  the  game." 

*'  I  don't  think  you  ought  to  counsel  him,  Norcott,"  said 
Cleremont.  "If  he's  a  player,  he's  fit  to  devise  his  own 
game." 

"Oh,  hang  it,  no,"  broke  in  Hotham;  "Norcott  has  a 
perfect  right  to  tell  him  what's  on  the  table." 

"  If  you  object  seriously,  sir,"  said  my  father  proudly, 
■"  the  party  is  at  an  end." 

"  I  put  it  to  yourself,"  began  Cleremont. 

"You  shall  not  appeal  to  me  against  myself,  sir.  You 
cither  withdraw  your  objection,  or  you  maintain  it." 

"Of  course  he  withdraws  it,"  said  Hotham,  whose  eyes 
never  wandered  from  my  father's  face. 

Cleremont  nodded  a  half-unwilling  assent. 

"You  will  do  me  the  courtesy  to  speak,  perhaps,"  said 
my  father ;  and  every  word  came  from  him  with  a  tremulous 
roll. 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  agree.  There  was  really  nothing  in  my 
remark,"  said  Cleremont,  whose  self-control  seemed  taxed 
to  its  last  limit. 

"There,  go  on,  boy,  and  finish  this  stupid  affair," 
said  my  father,  and  he  turned  to  the  chimney  to  light  his 
cigar. 

I  leaned  over  the  table,  and  a  mist  seemed  to  rise  before 
me.  I  saw  volumes  of  cloud  rolling  swiftly  across,  and 
meteors,  or  billiard-balls,  I  knew  not  which,  shooting  through 
them.  I  played  and  missed;  I  did  not  even  strike  a  ball. 
A  wild  roar  of  laughter,  a  cry  of  joy,  and  a  confused  blend- 
ing of  several  voices  in  various  tones  followed,  and  I  stood 
there  like  one  stunned  into  immobility.     Meanwhile  Clere- 


462  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

mont  finished  the  game,  and,  clapping  me  gayly  on  the 
shoulder,  cried,  "  I  'm  more  grateful  to  you  than  your  father 
is,  my  lad.  That  shaking  hands  of  yours  has  made  a  differ- 
ence of  two  hundred  Naps  to  me."  I  turned  towards  the 
fire;  my  father  had  left  the  room. 


CHAPTER  Vn. 

A    PRIVATE     AUDIENCE. 

I  HAD  but  reached  my  room  when  Eccles  followed  me  to  say 
my  father  wished  to  see  me  at  once. 

**  Come,  come,  Digby,"  said  Eccles,  good-naturedly, 
*' don't  be  frightened.  Even  if  he  should  be  angry  with 
you,  his  passion  passes  soon  over;  and,  if  uncontradicted, 
he  is  never  disposed  to  bear  a  grudge  long.  Go  imme- 
diately, however,  and  don't  keep  him  waiting." 

I  cannot  tell  with  what  a  sense  of  abasement  I  entered  my 
father's  dressing-room ;  for,  after  all,  it  was  the  abject  con- 
dition of  my  own  mind  that  weighed  me  down. 

''  So,  sir,"  said  he,  as  I  closed  the  door,  "  this  is  some- 
thing I  was  not  prepared  for.  You  might  be  forty  things, 
but  I  certainly  did  not  suspect  that  a  son  of  mine  should  be 
a  coward." 

Had  my  father  ransacked  his  whole  vocabulary  for  a  term 
of  insult,  he  could  not  have  found  one  to  pain  me  like  this. 

*'I  am  not  a  coward,  sir,"  said  I,  reddening  till  I  felt  my 
face  in  a  perfect  glow. 

''  What !  "  cried  he,  passionately ;  **  are  you  going  to  give 
me  a  proof  of  courage  by  daring  to  outrage  me  ?  Is  it  by 
sending  back  my  words  in  my  teeth  you  assume  to  be 
brave  ?  " 

"I  ask  pardon,  sir,"  said  I,  humbly,  ''if  I  have  replied 
rudely ;  but  you  called  me  by  a  name  that  made  me  forget 
myself.     I  hope  you  will  forgive  me." 

"  Sit  down,  there,  sir;  no,  there."  And  he  pointed  to  a 
more  distant  chair.  ''There  are  various  sorts  and  shades  of 
cowardice,  and  I  would  not  have  you  tarnished  with  any  one 
of  them.  The  creature  whose  first  thought,  and  indeed 
only  one,  in  an  emergency  is  his  personal  safety,  and  who* 


464  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

till  that  condition  is  secured,  abstains  from  all  action,  is 
below  contempt ;  him  I  will  not  even  consider.  But  next  to 
him  —  of  course  with  a  long  interval  —  comes  the  fellow 
who  is  so  afraid  of  a  responsibility  that  the  very  thought  of 
it  unmans  him.  How  did  the  fact  of  my  wager^come  to 
influence  you  at  all,  sir?  Why  should  you  have  had  any 
thought  but  for  the  game  you  were  playing,  and  how  it 
behoved  you  to  play  it?  How  came  I  and  these  gentlemen 
to  stand  between  you  and  your  real  object,  if  it  were  not 
that  a  craven  dread  of  consequences  had  got  the  ascendancy 
in  your  mind?  If  men  were  to  be  beset  by  these  calcula- 
tions, if  every  fellow  carried  about  him  an  armor  of  sophis- 
try like  this,  he  'd  have  no  hand  free  to  wield  a  weapon,  and 
the  world  would  see  neither  men  who  storm  a  breach  nor 
board  an  enemy.  Till  a  man  can  so  isolate  and  concentrate 
his  faculties  on  what  he  has  to  do  that  all  extraneous  con- 
ditions cease  to  affect  him,  he  will  never  be  well  served  by 
his  own  powers ;  and  he  who  is  but  half  served  is  only  half 
brave.  There  are  times  when  the  unreasoners  are  worth  all 
the  men  of  logic,  remember  that.  And  now  go  and  sleep 
over  it." 

He  motioned  me  to  withdraw,  but  I  could  not  bear  to  go 
till  he  had  withdrawn  the  slur  he  had  cast  on  me  in  the  word 
coward.  He  looked  at  me  steadfastly,  but  not  harshly,  for 
a  moment  or  two,  and  then  said,  — 

"  You  are  not  to  think  that  it  is  out  of  regret  for  a  lost  sum 
of  money  I  have  read  you  this  lecture.  As  to  the  wager  it- 
self, I  am  as  well  pleased  that  it  ended  as  it  did.  These 
gentlemen  are  not  rich,  either  of  them.  I  can  afford  the 
loss.     What  I  cannot  afford  is  the  way  I  lost  it." 

'*  But  will  you  not  say,  sir,  that  I  am  no  coward?  "  said  I, 
faltering. 

"I  will  withdraw  the  word,"  said  he,  slowly,  ''  the  very 
first  time  I  shall  see  you  deal  with  a  difficulty  without  a 
thought  for  what  it  may  cost  you.  There ;  good-night ; 
leave  me  now.  I  mean  to  have  a  ride  with  you  in  the 
morning." 

And  he  nodded  twice,  and  smiled,  and  dismissed  me. 

There  was  nothing,  certainly,  very  flattering  to  me  in  this 
reception.     It  cost  me   dearly  while  it  lasted,  and  yet  —  I 


A  PRIVATE  AUDIENCE.  465 

cannot  explain  why  —  I  came  away  with  a  feeling  of  affec- 
tion for  my  father,  and  a  desire  to  stand  well  in  his  esteem, 
«uch  as  I  had  not  experienced  till  that  moment.  It  was  his 
utter  indifference  up  to  this  that  had  chilled  and  repelled  me. 
Any  show  of  interest,  anything  that  might  evidence  that  he 
oared  what  I  was  or  what  I  might  become,  was  so  much 
better  than  this  apathy  that  I  welcomed  the  change  with 
delight.  Accustomed  to  the  tender  solicitude  of  a  loving 
mother,  no  niggard  of  her  praise,  and  more  given  to  sym- 
pathize than  blame,  the  stern  reserve  of  my  father's  man- 
ner had  been  a  terrible  reverse,  and  over  and  over  had  I 
asked  myself  why  he  took  me  from  where  I  was  loved  and 
■cherished,  to  live  this  life  of  ceremonious  observance  and 
cold  deference. 

To  know  that  he  felt  even  such  interest  in  me  as  this, 
was  to  restore  me  to  self-esteem  at  once.  He  would  not  have 
his  son  a  coward,  he  said ;  and  as  I  felt  in  my  heart  that  I 
was  not  a  coward,  as  I  knew  I  was  ready  then  and  there  to 
confront  any  peril  he  could  propose  to  me,  all  that  the  speech 
left  in  my  memory  was  a  sense  of  self-satisfaction. 

In  each  of  the  letters  I  had  received  from  my  mother  she 
impressed  on  me  how  important  it  was  that  I  should  win  my 
father's  affection,  and  now  a  hope  flashed  across  me  that  I 
might  do  this.  I  sat  down  to  tell  her  all  that  had  passed 
between  us;  but  somehow,  in  recounting  the  incident  of 
the  billiard-room,  I  wandered  away  into  a  description  of 
the  house,  its  splendors  and  luxury,  and  of  the  life  of 
costly  pleasure  that  we  were  living.  ''You  will  ask,  dearest 
mamma,"  I  wrote,  "how  and  when  I  find  time  to  study 
amidst  all  these  dissipations?  and  I  grieve  to  own  that  I 
do  very  little.  Mr.  Eccles  says  he  is  satisfied  with  me; 
but  I  fear  it  is  more  because  I  obtrude  little  on  his  notice 
than  that  I  am  making  any  progress.  We  are  still  in  the 
same  scene  of  the  Adrian  that  I  began  with  you;  and  as 
to  the  Greek,  we  leave  it  over  for  Saturdays,  and  the 
Saturdays  get  skipped.  I  have  become  a  good  shot  with 
the  rifle ;  and  George  says  I  have  the  finest,  lightest  hand 
he  knows  on  a  horse,  and  that  he  '11  make  me  yet  a  regu- 
lar steeple-chase  horseman.  I  have  a  passion  for  riding, 
:and  sometimes    get  four  mounts  on  a  day.     Indeed,  papa 

30 


466  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

takes  no  interest  in  the  stable,  and  I  give  all  the  orders, 
and  can  have  a  team  harnessed  for  me  —  which  I  do  — 
when  1  am  tired  with  the  saddle.  They  have  not  quite- 
given  up  calling  me  '  that  boy  of  Norcott's ;  *  only  now, 
when  they  do  so,  it  is  to  say  how  well  he  rides,  and  what 
a  taste  he  shows  for  driving  and  shooting. 

''  Don't  be  afraid  that  I  am  neglecting  my  music.  I  play 
every  day,  and  take  singing  lessons  with  an  Italian:  they 
call  him  the  Count  Guastalla ;  but  I  believe  he  is  the  tenor 
of  the  opera  here,  and  only  teaches  me  out  of  compliment  to 
papa.  He  dines  here  nearly  every  day,  and  plays  piquet 
with  papa  all  the  evening. 

''There  is  a  very  beautiful  lady  comes  here,  — Madame 
Cleremont.  She  is  the  wife  of  the  Secretary  to  the  Lega- 
tion. She  is  French,  and  has  such  pleasing  ways,  and  is 
so  gay,  and  so  good-natured,  and  so  fond  of  gratifying  me 
in  every  way,  that  I  delight  in  being  with  her ;  and  we  ride 
out  together  constantly,  and  I  am  now  teaching  her  to  drive 
the  ponies,  and  she  enjoys  it  just  as  I  used  myself.  I  don't 
think  papa  likes  her,  for  he  seldom  speaks  to  her,  and  never 
takes  her  in  to  dinner  if  there  is  another  lady  in  the  room ; 
and  I  suspect  she  feels  this,  for  she  is  often  very  sad.  I  dis- 
like Mr.  Cleremont ;  he  is  always  saying  snappish  things,  and 
is  never  happy,  no  matter  how  merry  we  are.  But  papa 
seems  to  like  him  best  of  all  the  people  here.  Old  Captain 
Hotham  and  I  are  great  friends,  though  he  's  always  saying, 
'  You  ought  to  be  at  sea,  youngster.  This  sort  of  life  will 
only  make  a  blackleg  of  you.'  But  I  can't  make  out  why, 
because  I  am  very  happy  and  have  so  much  to  interest  and 
amuse  me,  I  must  become  a  scamp.  Mdme.  Cleremont  says, 
too,  it  is  not  true ;  that  papa  is  bringing  me  up  exactly  as  he 
ought,  that  I  will  enter  life  as  a  gentleman,  and  not  be 
passing  the  best  years  of  my  existence  in  learning  the  habits 
of  the  well-bred  world.  They  fight  bitterly  over  this  every 
day ;  but  she  always  gets  the  victory,  and  then  kisses  me, 
and  says,  '  Mon  cher  petit  Digby,  I  '11  not  have  you  spoiled, 
to  please  any  vulgar  prejudice  of  a  tiresome  old  sea-captain.*^ 
This  she  whispers,  for  she  would  not  offend  him  for  any- 
thing. Dear  mamma,  how  you  would  love  her  if  you  knew 
her !     I  believe  I  'm  to  go  to  Rugby  to  school ;  but  I  hope 


A  PRIVATE  AUDIENCE.  467 

not,  for  how  I  shall  live  like  a  schoolboy  after  all  this  hap- 
piness I  don't  know;  and  Mdme.  Cleremont  says  she  will 
never  permit  it;  but  she  has  no  influence  over  papa,  and 
how  could  she  prevent  it?  Captain  Hotham  is  always  say- 
ing, '  If  Norcott  does  not  send  that  boy  to  Harrow  or 
Rugby,  or  some  of  these  places,  he  '11  graduate  in  the  Mar- 
shalsea  —  that's  a  prison —  before  he's  twenty.'  I  am  so 
glad  when  a  day  passes  without  my  being  brought  up  for 
the  subject  of  a  discussion,  which  papa  always  ends  with, 
*  After  all  I  was  neither  an  Etonian  nor  Rugbeian,  and  I 
suspect  1  can  hold  my  own  with  most  men ;  and  if  that  boy 
doesn't  belie  his  breeding,  perhaps  he  may  do  so  too.' 

''  Nobody  likes  contradicting  papa,  especially  when  he 
says  anything  in  a  certain  tone  of  voice,  and  whenever  he 
uses  this,  the  conversation  turns  away  to  something  else. 

"I  forgot  to  say  in  my  last,  that  your  letters  always 
come  regularly.  They  arrive  with  papa's,  and  he  sends 
them  up  to  me  at  once,  by  his  valet,  Mons.  Durand,  who 
is  always  so  nicely  dressed,  and  has  a  handsomer  watch- 
chain  than  papa. 

"Mdme.  Cleremont  said  yesterday,  'I'm  so  sorry  not 
to  know  your  dear  mamma,  Digby:  but  if  I  dared,  I'd 
send  her  so  many  caresses,  de  ma  part.'  I  said  nothing 
at  the  time,  but  I  send  them  now,  and  am  your  loving 
son, 


'  Digby  Norcott. 


This  letter  was  much  longer  than  it  appears  here.  It 
filled  several  sides  of  note-paper,  and  occupied  me  till  day- 
break. Indeed,  I  heard  the  bell  ringing  for  the  workmen 
as  1  closed  it,  and  shortly  after  a  gentle  tap  came  to  my 
door,  and  George  Spunner,  our  head  groom,  entered. 

*'I  saw  you  at  the  window.  Master  Digby,"  said  he, 
''and  I  thought  I'd  step  up  and  tell  you  not  to  ride  in 
spurs  this  morning.  Sir  Roger  wants  to  see  you  on  May 
Blossom,  and  you  know  she  's  a  hot  'un,  sir,  and  don't  want 
the  steel.  Indeed,  if  she  feels  the  boot,  she 's  as  much  as 
a  man  can  do  to  sit." 

"  You  're  a  good  fellow,  George,  to  think  of  this,"  said  I. 
*'  Do  you  know  where  we  're  going?  " 


468  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"  That's  what  I  was  going  to  tell  you,  sir.  We  are  cro- 
ing  to  the  Bois  de  Cambre,  and  there's  two  of  our  men 
gone  on  with  hurdles,  to  set  them  up  in  the  cross  alleys  of 
the  wood,  and  we  're  to  come  on  'em  unawares,  you  see." 

*'  Then  why  don't  you  give  me  Father  Tom  or  Hunger- 
ford?" 

*'  The  master  would  n't  have  either.  He  said,  *  A  child  of 
five  years  old  could  ride  the  Irish  horse ;  '  and  as  for  Hun- 
gerford,  he  calls  him  a  circus  horse." 

''  But  who  knows  if  Blossom  will  take  a  fence?  " 

"I'll  warrant  she'll  go  high  enough;  how  she'll  come 
down,  and  where,  is  another  matter.  Only  don't  you  go 
a-pullin'  at  her,  ride  her  in  the  snaflfle,  and  as  light  as  you 
can.  Face  her  straight  at  what  she  's  got  to  go  over,  and 
let  her  choose  her  own  pace." 

"  I  declare  I  don't  see  how  this  is  a  fair  trial  of  my  riding, 
George.     Do  you  ?  " 

"  Well,  it  is,  and  it  isn't,"  said  he,  scratching  his  head. 
"  You  might  have  a  very  tidy  hand  and  a  nice  seat,  and  not 
be  able  to  ride  the  mare ;  but  then,  sir,  you  see,  if  you  have 
the  judgment  to  manage  her  coolly,  and  not  rouse  her  temper 
too  far,  if  you  can  bring  her  to  a  fence,  and  make  her  take 
off  at  a  proper  distance,  and  fly  it,  never  changing  her 
stride  nor  balk,  why  then  he'll  see  you  can  ride." 

"And  if  she  rushes,  or  comes  with  her  chest  to  a  bank, 
or  if  —  as  I  think  she  will — she  refuses  her  fence,  rears, 
and  falls  back,  what  then?" 

"  Then  I  think  the  mornin's  sport  will  be  pretty  nigh 
over,"  growled  he;  as  though  I  had  suggested  something 
personally  offensive  to  him. 

"  What  time  do  we  go,  George?" 

"  Sir  Roger  said  seven,  sir,  but  that  will  be  eight  or  half- 
past.  He 's  to  drive  over  to  the  wood,  and  the  horses  are  to 
meet  him  there." 

"All  right.  I'll  take  a  short  sleep  and  be  sharp  to 
time." 

As  he  left  the  room,  I  tore  open  my  letter,  to  add  a  few 
words.  I  thought  I'd  say  something  that,  if  mischance 
befell  me,  might  be  a  comfort  to  my  dear  mother  to  read 
over  and  dwell  on,  but  for  the  life  of  me  I  did  not  know 


A  PRIVATE  AUDIENCE.  469 

how  to  do  it,  without  exciting  alarm  or  awakening  her  to  the 
dread  of  some  impending  calamity.  Were  I  to  say,  I  'm  off 
for  a  ride  with  papa,  it  meant  nothing ;  and  if  I  said,  I  'm 
going  to  show  him  how  I  can  manage  a  very  hot  horse,  it 
might  keep  her  in  an  agony  of  suspense  till  I  wrote  again. 

So  I  merely  added,  ''I  intend  to  write  to  you  very  soon 
again,  and  hope  I  may  do  so  within  the  week."  These  few 
commonplace  words  had  a  great  meaning  to  my  mind,  how- 
ever little  they  might  convey  to  her  I  wrote  them  to ;  and  as 
I  read  them  over,  I  stored  them  with  details  supplied  by 
imagination,  —  details  so  full  of  incident  and  catastrophe 
that  they  made  a  perfect  story.  After  this  I  lay  down  and 
slept  heavily. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


A   DARK-ROOM    PICTURE. 


My  next  letter  to  my  mother  was  very  short,   and  ran 
thus : — 

"Dearest  Mamma,  —  Don't  be  shocked  at  my  bad  writing,  for 
I  had  a  fall  on  Tuesday  last,  and  hurt  my  arm  a  little;  nothing 
broken,  but  bruised  and  sore  to  move,  so  that  I  lie  on  my  bed  and 
read  novels.  Madame  never  leaves  me,  but  sits  here  to  put  ice  on 
my  shoulder  and  play  chess  with  me.  She  reads  out  Balzac  for  me, 
and  I  don't  know  when  I  had  such  a  jolly  life.  It  was  a  rather  big 
hurdle,  and  the  mare  took  it  sideways,  and  caught  her  hind  leg,  —  at 
least  they  say  so,  —  but  we  came  down  together,  and  she  rolled  over 
me.  Papa  cried  out  well  done,  for  I  did  not  lose  my  saddle,  and  he 
has  given  me  a  gold  watch  and  a  seal  with  the  Norcott  crest.  Every 
one  is  so  kind ;  and  Captain  Hotham  comes  up  after  dinner  and  tells 
me  all  the  talk  of  the  table,  and  we  smoke  and  have  our  coffee  very 
nicely. 

"Papa  comes  every  night  before  supper,  and  is  very  good  to  me. 
He  says  that  Blossom  is  now  my  own,  but  I  must  teach  her  to  come 
cooler  to  her  fences.  I  can't  write  more,  for  my  pain  comes  back 
when  I  stir  my  arm.  You  shall  hear  of  me  constantly,  if  I  cannot 
write  myself. 

"  Oh,  dearest  mamma,  when  papa  is  kind  there  is  no  one  like  him, 
—  so  gentle,  so  thoughtful,  so  soft  in  manner,  and  so  dignified  all  the 
while.  I  wish  you  could  see  him  as  he  stood  here.  A  thousand 
loves  from  your  own  boy, 

«  DlGBY." 

Madame  Cleremont  wrote  by  the  same  post.  I  did  not 
see  her  letter ;  but  when  mamma's  answer  came  I  knew  it 
must  have  been  a  serious  version  of  my  accident,  and  told 
how,  besides  a  dislocated  shoulder,  I  had  got  a  broken 
collar-bone,  and  two  ribs   fractured.     With   all  this,  how- 


A  DARK-ROOM  PICTURE.  471 

ever,  there  was  no  danger  to  life;  for  the  doctor  said 
everything  had  gone  luckily,  and  no  internal  parts  were 
wounded. 

Poor  mamma  had  added  a  postscript  that  puzzled  Madame 
greatly,  and  she  came  and  showed  it  to  me,  and  asked 
what  I  thought  she  could  do  about  it.  It  was  an  entreaty 
that  she  might  be  permitted  to  come  and  see  me.  There 
was  a  touching  humility  in  the  request  that  almost  choked 
me  with  emotion  as  I  read  it.  ''I  could  come  and  go 
unknown  and  unnoticed,"  wrote  she.  "  None  of  Sir  Roger's 
household  have  ever  seen  me,  and  my  visit  might  pass  for 
the  devotion  of  some  old  follower  of  the  family,  and  I  will 
promise  not  to  repeat  it."  She  urged  her  plea  in  the  most 
beseeching  terms,  and  said  that  she  would  submit  to  any 
conditions  if  her  prayer  were  only  complied  with. 

''I  really  do  not  know  what  to  do  here,"  said  Madame 
to  me.  *'  Without  your  father's  concurrence  this  cannot  be 
<lone  ;  and  who  is  to  ask  him  for  permission  ?  " 

"Shall  I?" 

"  No,  no,  no,"  cried  she,  rapidlj^  "  Such  a  step  on 
your  part  would  be  ruin;  a  certain  refusal,  and  ruin  to 
jourself." 

*'  Could  Mr.  Eccles  do  it?" 

"  He  has  no  influence  whatever." 

"  Has  Captain  Hotham?  " 

'*  Less,  if  less  be  possible." 

''Mr.  Cleremont,  then?" 

"  Ah,  yes,  he  might,  and  with  a  better  chance  of  success; 
but  — "  She  stopped,  and  though  I  waited  patiently,  she 
did  not  finish  her  sentence. 

''  But  what?  "  asked  I  at  last. 

'' Gaston  hates  doing  a  hazardous  thing,"  said  she;  and 
I  remarked  that  her  expression  changed,  and  her  face  as- 
•sumed  a  hard,  stern  look  as  she  spoke.  "  His  theory  is,  do 
nothing  without  three  to  one  in  your  favor.  He  says  you  '11 
always  gets  these  odds,  if  you  only  wait." 

''But  you  don't  believe  that,"  cried  I,  eagerly. 

"  Sometimes  —  very  seldom,  that  is,  I  do  not  whenever  I 
^an  help  it."  There  was  a  long  pause  now,  in  which  neither 
x>t  us  spoke.     At  last  she  said,  "  I  can't  aid  your  mother  in 


472  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

this  project.  She  must  give  it  up.  There  is  no  saying  how 
your  father  would  resent  it." 

' '  And  how  will  you  tell  her  that  ?  "  faltered  I  out. 

''I  can't  tell.  I '11  try  and  show  her  the  mischief  it  might 
bring  upon  you ;  and  that  now,  standing  high,  as  you  do,  in 
your  father's  favor,  she  would  never  forgive  herself,  if  she 
were  the  cause  of  a  change  towards  you.  This  consideration 
will  have  more  weight  with  her  than  any  that  could  touch 
herself  personally." 

''But  it  shall  not,"  cried  I,  passionately.  "Nothing  m 
my  fortune  shall  stand  between  my  mother  and  her  love  for 
me." 

She  bent  down  and  looked  at  me  with  an  intensity  in  her 
stare  that  I  cannot  describe ;  it  was  as  if,  by  actual  stead- 
fastness, she  was  able  to  fix  me,  and  read  me  in  my  inmost 
heart. 

"  From  which  of  your  parents,  Digby,"  said  she,  slowly^ 
"do  you  derive  this  nature? " 

"  I  do  not  know ;  papa  always  says  I  am  very  like  him." 

"  And  do  you  believe  that  papa  is  capable  of  great  self- 
sacrifice?  I  mean,  would  he  let  his  affections  lead  him 
against  his  interests  ?  " 

"That  he  would!  He  has  told  me  over  and  over  the 
head  is  as  often  wrong  as  right,  —  the  heart  only  errs  about 
once  in  five  times."  She  fell  on  my  neck  and  kissed  me 
as  I  said  this,  with  a  sort  of  rapturous  delight.  "  Your 
heart  will  be  always  right,  dear  boy,"  said  she ;  once  more 
she  bent  down  and  kissed  me,  and  then  hurried  away. 

This  scene  must  have  worked  more  powerfully  on  my 
nerves  than  I  felt,  or  was  aware  of,  while  it  was  passing; 
at  all  events,  it  brought  back  my  fever,  and  before  night  I 
was  in  wild  delirium.  Of  the  seven  long  weeks  that  fol- 
lowed, with  all  their  alternations,  I  know  nothing.  My  first 
consciousness  was  to  know  myself,  as  very  weak  and 
propped  by  pillows,  in  a  half-darkened  room,  in  which  an 
old  nurse-tender  sat  and  mingled  her  heavy  snorings  with 
the  ticking  of  the  clock  on  the  chimney.  Thus  drowsily 
pondering,  with  a  debilitated  brain,  I  used  to  fancy  that  I 
had  passed  away  into  another  form  of  existence,  in  which 
no  sights  or  sounds  should  come  but  these  dreary  breath- 


A  DARK-ROOM  PICTURE.  473 

ings,  and  that  remorseless  ticking  that  seemed  to  be  spell- 
ing out  "eternity." 

Sometimes  one,  sometimes  two  or  three  persons  would 
enter  the  room,  approach  the  bed,  and  talk  together  in  whis- 
pers, and  I  would  languidly  lift  up  my  eyes  and  look  at 
them,  and  though  I  thought  they  were  not  altogether  un- 
known to  me,  the  attempt  at  recognition  would  have  been  an 
effort  so  full  of  pain  that  I  would,  rather  than  make  it,  fall 
back  again  into  apathy.  The  first  moment  of  perfect  con- 
sciousness —  when  I  could  easily  follow  all  that  I  heard,  and 
remember  it  afterwards  —  was  one  evening,  when  a  faint  but 
delicious  air  came  in  through  the  open  window,  and  the  rich 
fragrance  of  the  garden  filled  the  room.  Captain  Hotham 
and  the  doctor  were  seated  on  the  balcony  smoking  and 
chatting. 

*'You  're  sure  the  tobacco  won't  be  bad  for  him?  '*  asked 
Hotham. 

*' Nothing  will  be  bad  or  good  now,"  was  the  answer. 
''Effusion  has  set  in." 

"Which  means,  that  it's  all  over,  eh?" 

"About  one  in  a  thousand,  perhaps,  rub  through.  My 
own  experience  records  no  instance  of  recovery." 

"And  you  certainly  did  not  take  such  a  gloomy  view  of 
his  case  at  first.  You  told  me  that  there  were  no  vital  parts 
touched  ?  " 

"Neither  were  there;  the  ribs  had  suffered  no  displace- 
ment, and  as  for  a  broken  clavicle,  I  've  known  a  fellow 
get  up  and  finish  his  race  after  it.  This  boy  was  doing 
famously.  I  don't  know  that  I  ever  saw  a  case  going  on 
better,  when  some  of  them  here  —  it 's  not  easy  to  say  whom 
—  sent  off  for  his  mother  to  come  and  see  him.  Of  course, 
without  Norcott's  knowledge.  It  was  a  rash  thing  to  do, 
and  not  well  done  either;  for  when  the  woman  arrived,  there 
was  no  preparation  made,  either  with  the  boy  or  herself,  for 
their  meeting ;  and  the  result  was  that  when  she  crossed  the 
threshold  and  saw  him  she  fainted  away.  The  youngster 
tried  to  get  to  her  and  fainted  too;  a  great  hubbub  and 
noise  followed;  and  Norcott  himself  appeared.  The  scene 
that  ensued  must  have  been,  from  what  I  heard,  terrific. 
He  either  ordered  the  woman  out  of  the  house,  or  he  dragged 


474  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

her  away,  —  it 's  not  easy  to  say  which ;  but  it  is  quite  clear 
that  he  went  absolutely  mad  with  passion ;  some  say  that  he 
told  them  to  pack  off  the  boy  along  with  her,  but,  of  course, 
this  was  sheer  impossibility;  the  boy  was  insensible,  and 
has  been  so  ever  since." 

"  I  was  at  Namur  that  day,  but  they  told  me  when  I  came 
back  that  Cleremont's  wife  had  behaved  so  well;  that  she 
had  the  courage  to  face  Norcott;  and  though  I  don't  believe 
she  did  much  by  her  bravery,  she  drove  him  off  the  field  to 
his  own  room,  and  when  his  wife  did  leave  the  house  for 
the  railroad,  it  was  in  one  of  Norcott' s  carriages,  and 
Madame  herself  accompanied  her." 

"Is  she  his  wife?  that's  the  question." 

"There  's  not  a  doubt  of  it.  Blenkworth  of  the  Grays 
was  at  the  wedding. 

"If  I  were  to  be  examined  before  a  commission  of  lunacy 
to-mon-ow,"  said  the  doctor,  solemnly,  "I'd  call  that  man 
insane.  '* 

"And  you  'd  shut  him  up? " 

"I'd  shut  him  up!" 

"Then  I  'm  precious  glad  you  are  not  called  on  to  give  an 
opinion,  for  you  'd  shut  up  the  best  house  in  this  quarter  of 
Europe." 

"And  what  security  have  you  any  moment  that  he  won't 
make  a  clean  sweep  of  it,  and  turn  you  all  into  the  streets  ?  '* 

"Yes;  that's  on  the  cards  any  day." 

"He  must  have  got  through  almost  everything  he  had; 
besides,  I  never  heard  his  property  called  six  thousand  a 
year,  and  I  '11  swear  twelve  would  n't  pay  his  way  here." 

"What  does  he  care!  His  father  and  he  agreed  to  cut  off 
the  entail ;  and  seeing  the  sort  of  marriage  he  made,  he  *11 
not  fret  much  at  leaving  the  boy  a  beggar." 

"  But  he  likes  him ;  if  there  's  anything  in  the  world  he 
<;ares  for,  it 's  that  boy!  " 

The  other  must  have  made  some  gesture  of  doubt  or  dis- 
sent, for  the  doctor  quickly  added,  "No,  no,  I  'm  right  about 
that.  It  was  only  yesterday  morning  he  said  to  me  with  a 
shake  in  the  voice  there  's  no  mistaking,  '  If  you  can  come 
and  tell  me,  doctor,  that  he 's  out  of  danger,  I  'U  give  you  a 
thousand  pounds. ' " 


A  DARK-ROOM  PICTURE.  475 

''Egad,  I  think  I  'd  have  done  it,  even  though  I  might 
have  made  a  blunder." 

"Ye  're  no  a  doctor,  sir,  that  *s  plain;  "  and  in  the  emo- 
tion of  the  moment  he  spoke  the  words  with  a  strong  Scotch 
accent. 

There  was  a  silence  of  some  minutes,  and  Hotham  said, 
"  That  little  Frenchwoman  and  I  have  no  love  lost  between 
us,  but  I  'm  glad  she  cut  up  so  well." 

"They  're  strange  natures,  there  's  no  denying  it.  They  '11 
do  less  from  duty  and  more  from  impulse  than  any  people 
in  the  world,  and  they  're  never  thoroughly  proud  of  them- 
selves except  when  they  're  all  wrong." 

"That 's  a  neat  character  for  Frenchwomen,"  said  Hotham, 
laughing. 

"I  think  Norcott  will  be  looking  out  for  his  whist  by  this 
time,"  said  the  other;  and  they  both  arose,  and  passing 
noiselessly  through  the  room,  moved  away. 

I  had  enough  left  me  to  think  over,  and  I  did  think  over 
it  till  I  fell  asleep. 


CHAPTER  rX. 

MADAME    CLEREMONT. 

From  that  day  forth  I  received  no  tidings  of  my  mother. 
Whether  my  own  letters  reached  her  or  not,  I  could  not  tell ; 
and  though  I  entreated  Madame  Cleremont,  who  was  now 
my  confidante  in  everything,  to  aid  me  in  learning  where  my 
mother  was,  she  declared  that  the  task  was  beyond  her; 
and  at  last,  as  time  went  over,  my  anxieties  became  blunted 
and  my  affections  dulled.  The  life  I  was  leading  grew  to 
have  such  a  hold  upon  me,  and  was  so  full  of  its  own  varied 
interests,  that  —  with  shame  I  say  it  —  I  actually  forgot  the 
very  existence  of  her  to  whom  I  owed  any  trace  of  good  or 
honest  or  truthful  that  was  in  me. 

The  house  in  which  I  was  living  was  a  finishing  school 
for  every  sort  of  dissipation,  and  all  who  frequented  it  were 
people  who  only  lived  for  pleasure.  Play  of  the  highest  kind 
went  on  unceasingly,  and  large  sums  were  bandied  about 
from  hand  to  hand  as  carelessly  as  if  all  were  men  of  for- 
tune and  indifferent  to  heavy  losses. 

A  splendid  mode  of  living,  sumptuous  dinners,  a  great 
retinue,  and  perfect  liberty  to  the  guests,  drew  around  us 
that  class  who,  knowing  well  that  they  have  no  other  occu- 
pation than  self-indulgence,  throw  an  air  of  languid  elegance 
over  vice,  which  your  vulgar  sinner,  who  has  only  inter- 
vals of  wickedness,  knows  nothing  of;  and  this,  be  it  said 
passingly,  is,  of  all  sections  of  society,  the  most  seductive 
and  dangerous  to  the  young:  for  there  are  no  outrages  to 
taste  amongst  these  people,  they  violate  no  decencies,  they 
shock  no  principles.  If  they  smash  the  tables  of  the  law, 
it  is  in  kid-gloves,  and  with  a  delicious  odor  of  Ess  bouquet 
about  them.     The  Cleremonts  lived  at  the  Villa.     Cleremont 


MADAME   CLEREMONT.  477 

managed  the  household,  and  gave  the  orders  for  everything. 
Madame  received  the  company,  and  did  the  honors;  my 
father  lounging  about  like  an  unoccupied  guest,  and  actually 
amused,  as  it  seemed,  by  his  own  unimportance.  Hotham 
had  gone  to  sea;  but  Eccles  remained,  in  name,  as  my 
tutor ;  but  we  rarely  met,  save  at  meal-times,  and  his  manner 
to  me  was  almost  slavish  in  subserviency,  and  with  a  habit 
of  flattery  that,  even  young  as  I  was,  revolted  me. 

"Isn't  that  your  charge,  Eccles?"  I  once  heard  an  old 
gentleman  ask  him;  and  he  replied,  ''Yes,  my  Lord;  but 
Madame  Cleremont  has  succeeded  me.  It  is  she  is  finishing 
him." 

And  they  both  laughed  heartily  at  the  joke.  There  was, 
however,  this  much  of  truth  in  the  speech,  that  I  lived 
almost  entirely  in  her  society.  We  sang  together;  she 
called  me  Cherubino,  and  taught  me  all  the  page's  songs  in 
Mozart  or  Rossini;  and  we  rode  out  together,  or  read  or 
walked  in  company.  Nor  was  her  influence  over  me  such 
as  might  effeminate  me.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  ever  her 
aim  to  give  me  manly  tastes  and  ambitions.  She  laid 
great  stress  on  my  being  a  perfect  swordsman  and  a  pistol- 
shot,  over  and  over  telling  me  that  a  conscious  skill  in  arms 
gives  a  man  immense  coolness  in  every  question  of  differ- 
ence with  other  men;  and  she  would  add,  ''Don't  fall  into 
that  John  Bull  blunder  of  believing  that  duelling  is  gone  out 
because  they  dislike  the  practice  in  England.  The  world  is 
happily  larger  than  the  British  Islands." 

Little  sneers  like  this  at  England,  sarcasms  on  English 
prudery,  English  reserve,  or  English  distrustfulness,  were 
constantly  dropping  from  her,  and  I  grew  up  to  believe  that 
while  genuine  sentiment  and  unselfish  devotion  lived  on 
one  side  of  the  Channel,  a  decorous  hypocrisy  had  its  home 
on  the  other. 

Now  she  would  contrast  the  women  of  Balzac's  novels 
with  the  colder  nonentities  of  English  fiction ;  and  now  she 
would  dwell  on  traits  of  fascination  in  the  sex  which  our 
writers  either  did  not  know  of  or  were  afraid  to  touch  on. 
"It  is  entirely  the  fault  of  your  Englishwomen,"  she  would 
say,  "that  the  men  invariably  fall  victims  to  foreign  seduc- 
tions.    Circe  always  sings  with  a  bronchitis  in  the  North ;  " 


478  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

and  though  I  but  dimly  saw  what  she  pointed  at  then,  I  lived 
to  perceive  her  meaning  more  fully. 

As  for  my  father,  I  saw  little  of  him,  but  in  that  little 
he  was  always  kind  and  good-natured  with  me.  He  would 
quiz  me  about  my  lessons,  as  though  I  were  the  tutor,  and 
Eccles  the  pupil ;  and  ask  me  how  he  got  on  with  his  Aris- 
tophanes or  his  Homer?  He  talked  to  me  freely  about  the 
people  who  came  to  the  house,  and  treated  me  almost  as  an 
equal.  All  this  time  he  behaved  to  Madame  with  a  reserve 
that  was  perfectly  chilling,  so  that  it  was  the  rarest  thing 
in  the  world  for  the  three  of  us  to  be  together. 

"I  don't  think  you  like  papa,"  said  I  once  to  her,  in  an 
effusion  of  confidence.     "I  am  sure  you  don't  like  him!  " 

''And  why  do  you  think  so?  "  asked  she,  with  the  faintest 
imaginable  flush  on  her  pale  cheek. 

While  I  was  puzzling  myself  what  to  answer,  she  said,  — 

"Come  now,  Cherubino,  what  you  really  meant  to  say  was, 
I  don't  think  papa  likes  you!  " 

Though  I  never  could  have  made  so  rude  a  speech,  its 
truth  and  force  struck  me  so  palpably  that  I  could  not 
answer. 

"Well,"  cried  she,  with  a  little  laugh,  "he  is  very  fond 
of  Monsieur  Cleremont,  and  that  ought  always  to  be  enough 
for  Madame  Cleremont.  Do  you  know,  Cherubino,  it 's  the 
rarest  thing  in  life  for  a  husband  and  wife  to  be  liked  by  the 
same  people?  There  is  in  conjugal  life  some  beautiful 
little  ingredient  of  discord  that  sets  the  two  partners  to  the 
compact  at  opposite  poles,  and  gives  them  separate  follow-  ; 
ings.  I  mustn't  distract  you  with  the  theory,  I  only  want 
you  to  see  why  liking  my  husband  is  suflScient  reason  for 
not  caring  for  me." 

Now,  as  I  liked  her  exceedingly,  and  felt  something  very 
near  to  hatred  for  Monsieur  Cleremont,  I  accepted  all  she 
said  as  incontestable  truth.  Still  I  grieved  over  the  fact 
that  papa  was  not  of  my  own  mind,  and  did  not  see  her 
and  all  her  fascinations  as  I  did. 

There  is  something  indescribably  touching  in  the  gentle 
sadness  of  certain  buoyant  bright  natures.  Like  the  low 
notes  in  a  treble  voice,  there  is  that  that  seems  to  vibrate 
in  our  hearts  at  a  most  susceptible  moment,  and  with  the 


MADAME   CLEREMONT.  479 

force  of  an  unforeseen  contrast ;  and  it  was  thus  that,  in  her 
graver  times,  she  won  over  me  an  ascendancy,  and  inspired 
an  interest  which,  had  I  been  other  than  a  mere  boy,  had 
certainly  been  love. 

Perhaps  I  should  not  have  been  even  conscious,  as  I  was,, 
of  this  sentiment,  if  it  were  not  for  the  indignation  I  felt  at 
Cleremont's  treatment  of  her.  Over  and  over  again  my 
temper  was  pushed  to  its  last  limit  by  his  brutality  and 
coarseness.  His  tone  was  a  perpetual  sneer,  and  his  wife 
seldom  spoke  before  him  without  his  directing  towards  her 
a  sarcasm  or  an  impertinence.  This  was  especially  remark- 
able if  she  uttered  any  sentiment  at  all  elevated,  when  his. 
banter  would  be  ushered  in  with  a  burst  of  derisive 
laughter. 

Nothing  could  be  more  perfect  than  the  way  she  bore 
these  trials.  There  was  no  assumed  martyrdom,  no  covert 
appeal  for  sympathy,  no  air  of  suffering  asking  for  protec- 
tion. No!  whether  it  came  as  ridicule  or  rebuke,  she  ac- 
cepted it  gently  and  good-humoredly ;  trying,  when  she 
could,  to  turn  it  off  with  a  laugh,  or  when  too  grave  for 
that,  bearing  it  with  quiet  forbearance. 

I  often  wondered  why  my  father  did  not  check  these  per- 
secutions, for  they  were  such,  and  very  cruel  ones  too ;  but 
he  scarcely  seemed  to  notice  them,  or  if  he  did,  it  would  be 
by  a  smile,  far  more  like  enjoyment  of  Cleremont's  coarse 
wit  than  reprehending  or  reproving  it. 

"I  wonder  how  that  woman  stands  it?"  I  once  overheard 
Hotham  say  to  Eccles ;  and  the  other  replied,  — 

"I  don't  think  she  does  stand  it.  I  mistake  her  much  if 
she  is  as  forgiving  as  she  looks." 

Why  do  I  recall  these  things  ?  Why  do  I  dwell  on  incidents 
and  passages  which  had  no  actual  bearing  on  my  own  des- 
tiny? Only  because  they  serve  to  show  the  terrible  school 
in  which  I  was  brought  up ;  the  mingled  dissipation,  splen- 
dor, indolence,  and  passion  in  which  my  boyhood  was 
passed.  Surrounded  by  men  of  reckless  habits,  and  women 
but  a  mere  shade  better,  life  presented  itself  to  me  as  one 
series  of  costly  pleasures,  dashed  only  with  such  disappoint- 
ments as  loss  at  play  inflicted,  or  some  project  of  intrigue 
baffled  or  averted. 


480  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTTS. 

"If  that  boy  of  Norcott's  isn't  a  scamp,  he  must  be  a 
most  unteachable  young  rascal,"  said  an  old  colonel  once 
to  Eccles  on  the  croquet  ground. 

*'He  has  had  great  opportunities,"  said  Eccles,  as  he  sent 
off  his  ball,  ''and,  so  far  as  I  see,  neglected  none  of  them." 

''You  were  his  tutor,  I  think?"  said  the  other,  with  a 
laugh. 

"Yes,  till  Madame  Cleremont  took  my  place." 

"I  '11  not  say  it  was  the  worst  thing  could  have  happened 
him.  I  wish  it  had  been  a  woman  had  spoiled  me.  Eh, 
Eccles,  possibly  you  may  have  some  such  misgivings 
yourself  ?  " 

"I  was  never  corrupted,"  said  the  other,  with  a  senten- 
tious gravity  whose  hypocrisy  was  palpable. 

I  meditated  many  and  many  a  time  over  these  few  words, 
and  they  suggested  to  me  the  first  attempt  I  ever  made  to 
know  something  about  myself  and  my  own  nature. 

Those  stories  of  Balzac's,  those  wonderful  pictures  of 
passionate  life,  acquired  an  immense  hold  upon  me,  from 
the  very  character  of  my  own  existence.  That  terrific  game 
of  temper  against  temper,  mind  against  mind,  and  heart 
against  heart,  of  which  I  read  in  these'  novels,  I  was  daily 
witnessing  in  what  went  on  around  me,  and  I  amused  myself 
by  giving  the  names  of  the  characters  in  these  fictions  to 
the  various  persons  of  our  society. 

"It  is  a  very  naughty  little  world  we  live  in  at  this  house, 
Digby,"  said  Madame  to  me  one  day;  "but  you'd  be  sur- 
prised to  find  what  a  very  vulgar  thing  is  the  life  of  people 
in  general,  and  that  if  you  want  the  sensational,  or  even 
the  pictorial  in  existence,  you  '11  have  to  pay  for  it  in  some 
compromise  of  principle." 

"I  know  mamma  wouldn't  like  to  live  here,"  said  I,  half 
sullenly. 

"  Oh,  mamma ! "  cried  she,  with  a  laugh,  and  then  sud- 
denly checking  herself:  "No,  Digby,  you  are  quite  right. 
Mamma  would  be  shocked  at  our  doings ;  not  that  they  are 
so  very  wicked  in  themselves  as  that,  to  one  of  her  quiet 
ways,  they  would  seem  so." 

"Mamma  is  very  good.  I  never  knew  any  one  like  her,** 
stammered  I  out. 


MADAME  CLEREMONT.  481 

"That 's  quite  true,  my  dear  boy.  She  is  all  that  you  say, 
T3ut  one  may  be  too  good,  just  as  he  may  be  too  generous 
•or  too  confiding ;  and  it  is  well  to  remember  that  there  are  a 
number  of  excellent  things  one  would  like  to  be  if  they 
could  afford  them ;  but  the  truth  is,  Digby,  the  most  costly 
of  all  things  are  virtues." 

"Oh,  do  not  say  that!  "  cried  I,  eagerly. 

"Yes,  dear,  I  must  say  it.  Monsieur  Cleremont  and  I 
have  always  been  very  poor,  and  we  never  permitted  our- 
selves these  luxuries,  any  more  than  we  kept  a  great  house 
and  a  fine  equipage,  and  so  we  economize  in  our  morals,  as 
in  our  means,  doing  what  rich  folk  might  call  little  shabbi- 
nesses;  but,  on  the  whole,  managing  to  live,  and  not  un- 
happily either." 

"And  papa?" 

"Papa  has  a  fine  estate,  wants  for  nothing,  and  can  give 
himself  every  good  quality  he  has  a  fancy  for." 

"By  this  theory,  then,  it  is  only  rich  people  are  good?" 

"  Not  exactly.  I  would  rather  state  it  thus,  —  the  rich  are 
Sia  good  as  they  like  to  be ;  the  poor  are  as  good  as  they  *re 
able." 

"What  do  you  say,  then,  to  Mr.  Eccles:  he  's  not  rich, 
and  I  'm  sure  he 's  good? " 

"Poor  Mr.  Eccles!  "  said  she,  with  a  merry  laughter,  in 
iv^hich  a  something  scornful  mingled,  and  she  hurried  away. 


31 


CHAPTER  X. 

PLANNING   PLEASURE. 

It  was  my  father's  pleasure  to  celebrate  my  sixteenth  birth- 
day with  great  splendor.  The  whole  house  was  to  be  thrown 
open ;  and  not  only  the  house,  but  the  conservatory  and  the 
grounds  were  to  be  illuminated.  The  festivities  were  to 
comprise  a  grand  dinner  and  a  reception  afterwards,  which 
was  to  become  a  ball,  as  if  by  an  impromptu. 

As  the  society  of  the  Villa  habitually  was  made  up  of  a 
certain  number  of  intimates,  relieved,  from  time  to  time, 
by  such  strangers  as  were  presented,  and  as  my  father  never 
dined  out,  or  went  into  the  fashionable  world  of  the  place, 
it  was  somewhat  of  a  bold  step  at  once  to  invite  a  number  of 
persons  with  whom  we  had  no  more  than  bowing  acquaint- 
ance, and  to  ask  to  his  table  ministers,  envoys,  court  offi- 
cials, and  grand  chamberlains  for  the  first  time.  It  was  said, 
I  know  not  how  truthfully,  that  Cleremont  did  his  utmost  to 
dissuade  him  from  the  project  at  first,  by  disparaging  the 
people  for  whom  he  was  putting  himself  to  such  cost,  and, 
finding  this  line  of  no  avail,  by  openly  saying  that  what 
between  the  refusals  of  some,  the  excuses  of  others,  and  the 
actual  absence  of  many  whose  presence  he  was  led  to  expect, 
my  father  was  storing  up  for  himself  an  amount  of  disap- 
pointment and  outrage  that  would  drive  him  half  desperate. 
It  was  not,  of  course,  very  easy  to  convey  this  to  my  father. 
It  could  only  be  done  by  a  dropping  word  or  a  half-expressed 
doubt.  And  when  the  time  came  to  make  out  the  lists  and 
issue  the  invitations,  no  real  step  had  been  taken  to  turn 
him  from  his  plan. 

The  same  rumor  which  ascribed  to  Cleremont  the  repute 
of  attempting  to  dissuade  my  father  from  his  project,  attrib- 


PLANNING  PLEASURE.  483 

uted  to  Madame  Cleremont  a  most  eager  and  warm  advocacy 
of  the  intended  fHe.  From  the  marked  coldness  and  re- 
serve, however,  which  subsisted  between  my  father  and  her, 
it  was  too  difficult  to  imagine  in  what  way  her  influence 
could  be  exercised. 

And  for  my  own  part,  though  I  heard  the  list  of  the  com- 
pany canvassed  every  day  at  luncheon,  and  discussed  at 
dinner,  I  don't  remember  an  occasion  where  Madame  ever 
uttered  a  word  of  remark,  or  even  a  suggestion  in  the  mat- 
ter. Hotham,  who  had  come  back  on  a  short  leave,  was 
full  of  the  scheme.  With  all  a  sailor's  love  of  movement 
and  bustle,  he  mixed  himself  up  with  every  detail  of  it. 
He  wrote  to  Paris  and  London  for  all  the  delicacies  of  the 
"comestible  "  shops.  He  established  "estafettes  "  on  every 
side  to  bring  in  fresh  flowers  and  fruit;  with  his  own  hands 
he  rigged  out  tents  and  marquees  for  the  regimental  bands, 
which  were  to  be  stationed  in  different  parts  of  the  grounds ; 
and  all  the  devices  of  Bengal  ligtits  and  fireworks  he  took 
into  his  especial  charge. 

Indeed,  Nixon  told  me  that  his  functions  did  not  stop 
here,  but  that  he  had  charged  himself  with  the  care  of 
Madame  Cleremont's  toilette,  for  whom  he  had  ordered  the 
most  splendid  ball-dress  Paris  could  produce.  "Naturally, 
Master  Digby,  it  is  Sir  Roger  pays,"  added  he ;  "  and 
perhaps  one  of  these  days  he'll  be  surprised  to  find  that 
diamond  loops  and  diamond  bouquets  should  figure  in  a 
milliner's  bill.  But  as  she  is  to  receive  the  company,  of 
course  it's  all  right." 

' '  And  why  does  Mr.  Cleremont  seem  to  dislike  it  all  so 
much?"  asked  I. 

"  Chiefly,  I  believe,  because  she  likes  it."  And  then,  as 
though  he  had  said  more  than  he  intended,  he  added :  "Oh, 
it 's  easy  to  see.  he  likes  to  keep  this  house  as  much  his  own 
as  he  can.  He  doesn't  want  Sir  Roger  to  have  other  people 
about  him.  He's  almost  the  master  here  now;  but  if  your 
father  begins  to  mix  with  the  world,  and  have  strangers  here, 
Cleremont's  reign  would  soon  be  over." 

Though  there  was  much  in  this  speech  to  suggest  thought 
and  speculation,  nothing  in  it  struck  me  so  forcibly  as  the 
impertinence   of  calling  Mr.  Cleremont  Clereniont,   and  it 


484  THAT  BOY   OF  NORCOTT'S. 

was  all  I  could  do  to  suppress  the  rebuke  that  was  on  my 
lips. 

''If  your  father  comes  through  for  a  thousand  pounds, 
sir,"  continued  he,  "I'll  say  he's  lucky.  If  Sii*  Roger 
would  leave  it  to  one  person  to  give  the  orders,  —  I  don't 
mean  myself,  —  though  by  right  it  is  my  business ;  instead 
of  that,  there  's  the  Captain  sending  for  this,  and  Cleremont 
for  the  other,  and  you  '11  see  there  will  be  enough  for  three 
entertainments  when  it's  all  over.  Could  you  just  say  a 
word  to  him,  sir?" 

"Not  for  the  world,  Nixon.  Papa  is  very  kind  to  me 
and  good-natured,  but  I  '11  not  risk  any  liberty  with  him ; 
and  what's  more,  I'd  be  right  sorry  to  call  Mr.  Cleremont 
Cleremont  before  him,  as  you  have  done  twice  within  the 
last  five  minutes." 

"  Lord  bless  you.  Master  Digby !  I  've  known  him  these 
fifteen  years.  I  knew  him  when  he  came  out,  just  a  boy 
like,  to  Lord  Colthorpe's  embassy.     He  and  I  is  like  pals." 

"You  have  known  me  also  as  a  boy,  Nixon,"  said  I, 
haughtily;  "  and  yet,  I  promise  you,  I'll  not  permit  you  to 
speak  of  me  as  Norcott,  when  I  am  a  man." 

"  No  fear  of  that,  sir,  you  may  depend  on  't,"  said  he, 
with  humility ;  but  there  was  a  malicious  twinkle  in  his  eye, 
and  a  firm  compression  of  the  lip  as  he  withdrew,  that  did 
not  leave  my  mind  the  whole  day  after.  Indeed,  I  recog- 
nized that  his  face  had  assumed  the  selfsame  look  of  insolent 
familiarity  it  wore  when  he  spoke  of  Cleremont. 

The  evening  of  that  day  was  passed  filling  up  the  cards 
of  invitation,  —  a  process  which  amused  me  greatly,  afford- 
ing, as  it  did,  a  sort  of  current  critique  on  the  persons  whose 
names  came  up  for  notice,  and  certainly,  if  I  were  to  judge 
of  their  eligibility  only  by  what  I  heard  of  their  characters, 
I  might  well  feel  amazed  why  they  were  singled  out  for  at- 
tentions. They  were  marquises  and  counts,  however,  chev- 
aliers of  various  orders,  grand  cordons  and  "  hautes  charges," 
so  that  their  trespasses  or  their  shortcomings  had  all  been 
enacted  in  the  world  of  good  society,  and  with  each  other  as 
accomplices  or  victims.  There  were  a  number  of  contingen- 
cies, too,  attached  to  almost  every  name.  There  must  be 
high  play  for  the  Russian  envoy,  flirting  for  the  French 


PLANNING  PLEASURE.  485 

minister's  wife,  iced  drinks  for  the  Americans,  and  scandal 
and  Ostend  oysters  for  everybody.  There  was  scarcely  a 
good  word  for  any  one,  and  yet  the  most  eager  anxiety  was 
expressed  that  they  would  all  come.  Immense  precautions 
had  been  taken  to  fix  a  day  when  there  was  nothing  going 
on  at  court  or  in  the  court  circle.  It  was  difficult  to  believe 
that  pleasure  could  be  planned  with  such  heart-burning  and 
bitterness.  There  was  scarcely  a  detail  that  did  not  come 
associated  with  something  that  reflected  on  the  morals  or 
the  manners  of  the  dear  friends  we  were  entreating  to  honor 
us ;  and  for  the  life  of  me  I  did  not  know  why  such  pains 
were  taken  to  secure  the  presence  of  people  for  whom  none 
had  a  good  wish  nor  a  single  kindly  thought. 

My  father  took  very  little  part  in  the  discussion ;  he  sat 
there  with  a  sort  of  proud  indifl'erence,  as  though  the  matter 
had  little  interest  for  him,  and  if  a  doubt  were  expressed  as 
to  the  likelihood  of  this  or  that  person's  acceptance,  he 
would  superciliously  break  in  with,  "  He  '11  come,  sir :  I  '11 
answer  for  that.     I  have  never  yet  played  to  empty  benches." 

This  vain  and  haughty  speech  dwelt  in  my  mind  for  many 
a  day,  and  showed  me  how  my  father  deemed  that  it  was 
not  his  splendid  style  of  living,  his  exquisite  dinners,  and  his 
choice  wines  that  drew  guests  around  him,  but  his  own  es- 
pecial qualities  as  host  and  entertainer. 

"  But  that  it  involves  the  bore  of  an  audience,  I'd  ask 
the  king;  I  could  give  him  some  Chdteau  d'Yquem  very 
unlike  his  own,  and  such  as,  I  '11  venture  to  say,  he  never 
tasted,"  said  he,  affectedly. 

'*  So  you  are  going  to  bring  out  the  purple  seal?"  cried 
Cleremont. 

* '  I  might  for  royalty,  sir ;  but  not  for  such  people  as  I 
read  of  in  that  list  there." 

"Why,  here  are  two  Dukes  with  their  Duchesses,  Mar- 
quises and  Counts  by  the  score,  half-a-dozen  ministers 
plenipotentiary,  and  a  perfect  cloud  of  chamberlains  and 
court  swells." 

'*  They  'd  cut  a  great  figure,  I  've  no  doubt,  Hotham,  on 
the  quarter-deck  of  the  '  Thunder  Bomb,'  where  you  eke 
out  the  defects  of  a  bad  band  with  a  salute  from  your 
big  guns,  and  give  your  guests  the  national  anthem  when 


486  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

they  want  champagne.  Oh  dear,  there's  no  snob  like  a 
sailor !  " 

'*  Well,  if  they  're  not  good  enough  for  you,  why  the  devil 
do  you  ask  them?"  cried  liotham,  sturdily. 

''  Sir,  if  I  were  to  put  such  a  question  to  myself,  I  might 
shut  up  my  house  to-morrow !  "  And  with  this  very  uncour- 
teous  speech  he  arose  and  left  the  room. 

We  continued,  however,  to  fill  in  the  cards  of  invitation 
and  address  the  envelopes,  but  with  little  inclination  to  con- 
verse, and  none  whatever  to  refer  to  what  had  passed. 

''There,"  cried  Cleremont,  as  he  checked  off  the  list. 
*'That  makes  very  close  on  seven  hundred.  I  take  it  I 
may  order  supper  for  six  hundred."  Then  turning  half 
fiercely  to  me,  he  added :  "  Do  you  know,  youngster,  that 
all  this  tomfoolery  is  got  up  for  you9  It  is  by  way  of 
celebrating  your  birthday  we're  going  to  turn  the  house 
out  of  the  windows !  " 

' '  I  suppose  my  father  has  that  right,  sir." 

''  Of  course  he  has,  just  as  he  would  have  the  right  to 
make  a  ruin  of  the  place  to-morrow  if  he  liked  it;  but  I 
don't  fancy  his  friends  would  be  the  better  pleased  with 
him  for  his  amiable  eccentricity :  your  father  pushes  our 
regard  for  him  very  far  sometimes." 

"  I  '11  tell  him  to  be  more  cautious,  sir,  in  future,"  said  I, 
moving  towards  the  door. 

"Do  so,"  said  he.     ''  Good-night." 

I  had  scarcely  taken  my  bedroom  candle  when  I  felt  a 
hand  on  my  shoulder:  I  turned  and  saw  Madame  Clere- 
mont standing  very  pale  and  in  great  agitation  at  my 
side.  "Oh,  Digby,"  said  she,  "don't  make  that  man  your 
enemy  whatever  you  do ;  he  is  more  than  a  match  for 
you,  poor  child !  "  She  was  about  to  say  more  when  we 
heard  voices  in  the  corridor,  and  she  hurried  away  and 
left  me. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A   BIRTHDAY    DINNER. 

The  eventful  day  arrived  at  last,  and  now,  as  I  write,  I  can 
bring  up  before  me  the  whole  of  that  morning,  so  full  of 
exciting  sensations  and  of  pleasurable  surprises.  I  wandered 
about  from  room  to  room,  never  sated  with  the  splendors 
around  me.  Till  then  I  had  not  seen  the  gorgeous  furniture 
uncovered,  nor  had  I  the  faintest  idea  of  the  beauty  and 
richness  of  the  silk  hangings,  or  the  glittering  elegance  of 
those  lustres  of  pure  Venetian  glass.  Perhaps  nothing, 
however,  astonished  me  so  much  as  the  array  of  gold  and 
silver  plate  in  the  dining-room.  Our  every-day  dinners  had 
been  laid  out  with  what  had  seemed  to  me  a  most  costly  ele- 
gance ;  but  what  were  they  to  this  display  of  splendid  centre- 
pieces and  massive  cups  and  salvers  large  as  shields !  Of 
flowers,  the  richest  and  rarest,  wagon-loads  poured  in ;  and 
at  last  I  saw  the  horses  taken  out,  and  carts  full  of  car- 
nations and  geraniums  left  unloaded  in  the  stable-yard. 
Ice,  too,  came  in  the  same  profusion :  those  squarely  cut 
blocks,  bright  as  crystal,  and  hollowed  out  to  serve  as  wine- 
coolers,  and  take  their  place  amidst  the  costlier  splendors  of 
gold  and  silver. 

It  is  rare  to  hear  the  servant  class  reprove  profusion ;  but 
here  I  overheard  many  a  comment  on  the  reckless  profligacy 
of  outlay  which  had  provided  for  this  occasion  enough  for  a 
dozen  such.  It  was  easy  to  see,  they  said,  that  Mr.  Clere- 
mont  did  not  pay ;  and  this  sneer  sunk  deep  into  my  mind, 
increasing  the  dislike  I  already  felt  for  him. 

Nor  was  it  the  house  alone  was  thus  splendidly  prepared 
for  reception ;  but  kiosks  and  tents  were  scattered  through 
the  grounds,  in  each  of  which,  as  if  by  magic,  supper  could 
be  served  on  the  instant.     Upwards  of  thirty  additional  ser- 


488  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTrS. 

vants  were  engaged,  all  of  whom  were  dressed  in  our  state 
livery,  white,  with  silver  epaulettes,  and  the  Norcott  crest 
embroidered  on  the  arm.  These  had  been  duly  drilled  by 
Mr.  Cleremont,  and  were  not,  he  said,  to  be  distinguished, 
by  the  most  critical  eye  from  the  rest  of  the  household. 

Though  there  was  movement  everywhere,  and  everywhere 
activity,  there  was  little  or  no  confusion.  Cleremont  was 
an  adept  in  organization,  and  already  his  skill  and  clever-, 
ness  had  spread  discipline  through  the  mass.  He  was  a 
despot,  however,  would  not  permit  the  slightest  interference 
with  his  functions,  nor  accept  a  suggestion  from  any  one. 
*'  Captain  Hotham  gives  no  orders  here,"  I  heard  him  say; 
and  when  standing  under  my  window,  and  I  am  almost  sure 
seeing  me,  he  said,  "  Master  Digby  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  arrangements  any  more  than  yourself." 

I  had  determined  that  day  to  let  nothing  irritate  or  vex 
me ;  that  I  would  give  myself  up  to  unmixed  enjoyment, 
and  make  this  birthday  a  memorable  spot  in  life,  to  look 
back  on  with  undiluted  delight.  I  could  have  been  more 
certain  to  carry  out  this  resolve  if  I  could  only  have  seen 
and  spoken  with  Madame  Cleremont ;  but  she  did  not  leave 
her  room  the  whole  day.  A  distinguished  hairdresser  had 
arrived  with  a  mysterious  box  early  in  the  morning,  and 
after  passing  two  hours  engaged  with  her,  had  returned  for 
more  toilet  requirements.  In  fact,  from  the  coming  and 
going  of  maids  and  dressmakers,  it  was  evident  that  the 
preparations  of  beauty  were  fully  equal  to  those  that  were 
being  made  by  cooks  and  confectioners. 

My  father,  too,  was  invisible ;  his  breakfast  was  served 
in  his  own  room ;  and  when  Cleremont  wished  to  commu- 
nicate with  him,  he  had  to  do  so  in  writing :  and  these 
little  notes  passed  unceasingly  between  them  till  late  in  the 
afternoon. 

"What's  up  now?"  I  heard  Hotham  say,  as  Cleremont 
tore  up  a  note  in  pieces  and  flung  the  fragments  from  him 
with  impatience. 

''  Just  like  him.  I  knew  exactly  how  it  would  be,"  cried 
the  other.  ''  He  sent  a  card  of  invitation  to  the  Due  de^ 
Bredar  without  first  making  a  visit;  and  here  comes  the 
Due's  chasseur  to  say  that  his  Excellency  has  not  the  honor 


A  BIRTHDAY  DINNER.  489' 

of  knowing  the  gentleman  who  has  been  so  gracious  as  to 
ask  him  to  dinner." 

*'  Norcott  will  have  him  out  for  the  impertinence,"  said 
Hotham. 

' '  And  what  will  that  do  ?  Will  the  shooting  him  or  the 
being  shot  make  this  dinner  go  ofif  as  we  meant  it,  eh? 
Is  that  for  me,  Nixon?  Give  it  here."  He  took  a  note  as 
he  spoke,  and  tore  it  open.  *' '  La  Marquise  de  Carnac  is 
engaged,'  not  a  word  more.  The  world  is  certainly  pro- 
gressing in  politeness.  Three  cards  came  back  this  day 
with  the  words  '  Sent  by  mistake '  written  on  them.  Nor- 
cott  does  not  know  it  yet,  nor  shall  he  till  to-morrow." 

''Is  it  true  that  the  old  Countess  de  Joievillars  begged 
to  know  who  was  to  receive  the  ladies  invited  ?  " 

''  Yes,  it  is  true ;  and  I  told  her  a  piece  of  her  own  early 
history  in  return,  to  assure  her  that  no  accident  of  choice 
should  be  any  bar  to  the  hope  of  seeing  her." 

"What  was  the  story?" 

"  I  'd  tell  it  if  that  boy  of  Norcott's  was  not  listening 
there  at  that  window." 

*' Yes,  sir,"  cried  I;  "I  have  heard  every  word,  and 
mean  to  repeat  it  to  my  father  when  I  see  him." 

"  Tell  him  at  the  same  time,  then,  that  his  grand  dinner 
of  twenty-eight  has  now  come  down  to  seventeen,  and  1  'm 
not  fully  sure  of  three  of  these." 

I  went  down  into  the  dining-room,  and  saw  that  places 
had  been  laid  for  twenty-eight,  and  as  yet  no  alteration  had 
been  made  in  the  table,  so  that  it  at  once  occurred  to  me  this 
speech  of  Cleremont's  was  a  mere  impertinence,  —  one  of 
those  insolent  sallies  he  was  so  fond  of.  Nixon,  too,  had 
placed  the  name  of  each  guest  on  his  napkin,  and  he,  at  least,^ 
had  not  heard  of  any  apologies. 

Given  in  my  honor,  as  this  dinner  was,  I  felt  a  most 
intense  interest  in  its  success.  I  was  standing,  as  it  were, 
on  the  threshold  of  life,  and  regarded  the  mode  in  which  I 
should  be  received  as  an  augury  of  good  or  evil.  My  father's 
supremacy  at  home,  the  despotism  he  wielded,  and  the 
respect  and  deference  he  exacted,  led  me  to  infer  that  he 
exercised  the  same  influence  on  the  world  at  large  ;  and  that, 
as  I   had  often  heard,  the   only  complaint  against   him  in 


490  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

society  was  his  exclusiveness.  I  canvassed  these  thoughts 
with  myself  for  hours,  as  I  sat  alone  in  my  room  waiting  till 
it  was  time  to  dress. 

At  last  eight  o'clock  struck,  and  I  went  down  into  the 
drawing-room.  Hotham  was  there,  in  a  window  recess,  con- 
versing in  whispers  with  an  Italian  count,  —  one  of  our 
intimates,  but  of  whom  I  knew  nothing.  They  took  no 
notice  of  me,  so  that  I  took  up  a  paper  and  began  to  read. 
Cleremont  came  in  soon  after  with  a  bundle  of  notes  in  his 
hand.  ''Has  your  father  come  down?"  asked  he,  hastily; 
and  then,  without  waiting  for  my  reply,  he  turned  and  left 
the  room.  Madame  next  appeared.  I  have  no  words  for 
my  admiration  of  her,  as,  splendidly  dressed  and  glittering 
with  diamonds,  she  swept  proudly  in.  That  her  beauty 
could  have  been  so  heightened  by  mere  toilette  seemed 
incredible,  and  as  she  read  my  wonderment  in  my  face  she 
smiled,  and  said  :  — 

"Yes,  Digby,  I  am  looking  my  very  best  to  fete  your 
birthday." 

I  would  have  liked  to  have  told  her  how  lovely  she 
appeared  to  me,  but  I  could  only  blush  and  gaze  wonder- 
ingly  on  her. 

''  Button  this  glove,  dear,"  said  she,  handing  to  me  her 
wrist  all  weighted  and  jingling  with  costly  bracelets ;  and 
while,  with  trembling  fingers,  I  was  trying  to  obey  her,  my 
father  entered  and  came  towards  us.  He  made  her  a  low 
but  very  distant  bow,  tapped  me  familiarly  on  the  shoulder, 
and  then  moved  across  to  an  arm-chair  and  sat  down. 

Cleremont  now  came  in,  and,  drawing  a  chair  beside  my 
father's,  leaned  over  and  said  something  in  a  whisper.  Not 
seeming  to  attend  to  what  he  was  saying,  my  father  snatched, 
rather  than  took,  the  bundle  of  letters  he  held  in  his  hand, 
ran  his  eyes  eagerly  over  some  of  them,  and  then,  crushing 
the  mass  in  his  grasp,  he  threw  it  into  the  fire. 

"  It  is  forty  minutes  past  eight,"  said  he,  calmly,  but  with 
a  deadly  pallor  in  his  face.  "  Can  any  one  tell  me  if  that 
clock  be  right?" 

''  It  is  eight  or  ten  minutes  slow,"  said  Hotham. 

"Whom  do  we  wait  for,  Cleremont?"  asked  my  father 
asain. 


A  BIRTHDAY  DINNER.  491 

''  Steinmetz  was  de  service  with  the  King,  but  would  come 
if  he  got  free ;  and  there  's  Rochegude,  the  French  Secre- 
tary, was  to  replace  his  chief.  I  'm  not  quite  sure  about  the 
Walronds,  but  Craydon  told  me  positively  to  expect  him,*' 

*'  Do  me  the  favor  to  ring  the  bell  and  order  dinner,"  said 
my  father;  and  he  spoke  with  measured  calm. 

' '  Won't  you  wait  a  few  minutes  ?  "  whispered  Cleremont. 
*' The  Duke  de  Frialmont,  I'm  sure,  will  be  here." 

"No,  sir;  we  live  in  a  society  that  understands  and 
observes  punctuality.  No  breach  of  it  is  accidental.  Din- 
ner, Nixon !  "  added  he,  as  the  servant  appeared. 

The  folding-doors  were  thrown  wide  almost  at  once,  and 
dinner  announced.  My  father  gave  his  arm  to  Madame 
Cleremont,  who  actually  tottered  as  she  walked  beside  him, 
and  as  she  sat  down  seemed  on  the  verge  of  fainting.  Just 
as  we  took  our  places,  three  young  men,  somewhat  over- 
dressed, entered  hurriedly,  and  were  proceeding  to  make 
their  apologies  for  being  late ;  but  my  father,  with  a  chilling 
distance,  assured  them  they  were  in  excellent  time,  and 
motioned  them  to  be  seated. 

Of  the  table  laid  for  twenty-eight  guests,  nine  places  were 
occupied  ;  and  these,  by  some  mischance,  were  scattered  here 
and  there  with  wide  intervals.  Madame  Cleremont  sat  on 
my  father's  right,  and  three  empty  places  flanked  his  left 
hand. 

I  sat  opposite  my  father,  with  two  vacant  seats  on  either 
side  of  me ;  Hotham  nearest  to  me,  and  one  of  the  strangers 
beside  him.  They  conversed  in  a  very  low  tone,  but  short 
snatches  and  half  sentences  reached  me ;  and  I  heard  the 
stranger  say,  ''  It  was  too  bold  a  step;  women  are  sure  to 
resent  such  attempts."  Madame  Cleremont's  name,  too, 
came  up  three  or  four  times;  and  the  stranger  said,  ''It's 
my  first  dinner  here,  and  the  Bredars  will  not  forgive  me 
for  coming." 

"  Well,  there's  none  of  them  has  such  a  cook  as  Norcott," 
said  Hotham. 

'  I  quite  agree  with  you ;  but  I  'd  put  up  with  a  worse 
dinner  for  better  company." 

I  looked  round  at  this  to  show  I  had  heard  the  remark, 
and  from  that  time  they  conversed  in  a  whisper. 


492  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

My  father  never  uttered  a  word  during  the  dinner.  I 
do  not  know  if  he  ate,  but  he  helped  himself  and  affected 
to  eat.  As  for  Madame,  how  she  sat  out  those  long  two 
hours,  weak  and  fainting  as  she  was,  I  cannot  tell.  I 
saw  her  once  try  to  lift  her  glass  to  her  lips,  but  her  hand 
trembled  so,  she  set  it  down  untasted,  and  lay  back  in  her 
chair,  like  one  dying  out  of  exhaustion. 

A  few  words  and  a  faint  attempt  to  laugh  once  or 
twice  broke  the  dead  silence  of  the  entertainment,  which 
proceeded,  however,  in  all  its  stately  detail,  course  after 
course,  till  the  dessert  was  handed  round,  and  Tokay,  in 
small  gilt  glasses,  was  served ;  then  my  father  rose  slowly, 
and,  drawing  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  looked  haughtily 
around  him.  *'  May  I  ask  my  illustrious  friends,"  said  he, 
''  who  have  this  day  so  graciously  honored  me  with  their 
presence,  to  drink  the  health  of  my  son,  whose  birthday  we 
celebrate.  There  is  no  happier  augury  on  entering  life  than 
to  possess  the  friendship  and  good-will  of  those  who  stand 
foremost  in  the  world's  honor.  It  is  his  great  privilege  to 
be  surrounded  this  day  by  beauty  and  by  distinction.  The 
great  in  the  arts  of  peace  and  war,  and  that  loveliness  which 
surpasses  in  its  fascination  all  other  rewards,  are  around 
me,  and  I  call  upon  these  to  drink  to  the  health  of  Digby 
Norcott." 

All  rose  and  drank ;  Hotham  lifted  his  glass  high  in  air 
and  tried  a  cheer,  but  none  joined  him ;  his  voice  died 
away,  and  he  sat  down  ;  and  for  several  minutes  an  unbroken 
silence  prevailed. 

My  father  at  last  leaned  over  towards  Madame,  and  I 
heard  the  word  "coffee."  She  arose  and  took  his  arm,  and 
we  all  followed  them  to  the  drawing-room. 

"I'm  right  glad  it's  over,"  said  Hotham,  as  he  poured 
his  brandy  over  his  coffee.  "  I  've  sat  out  a  court-martial 
that  wasn't  slower  than  that  dinner." 

"But  what's  the  meaning  of  it  all?"  asked  another ► 
"  Why  and  how  came  all  these  apologies?  " 

"  You'd  better  ask  Cleremont,  or  rather  his  wife,"  mut- 
tered Hotham,  and  moved  away. 

"You  ought  to  get  into  the  open  air;  that's  the  best 
thing  for  you,"  I  heard  Cleremont  say  to  his  wife;  but  there 


A   BIRTHDAY  DINNER.  493 

was  such  a  thorough  indifference  in  the  tone,  it  sounded  less 
like  a  kindness  than  a  sarcasm.  She,  however,  drew  a  shawl 
around  her,  and  moved  down  the  steps  into  the  garden.  My 
father  soon  after  retired  to  his  own  room,  and  Cleremont 
laughingly  said,  "  There  are  no  women  here,  and  we  may 
have  a  cigar ; "  and  he  threw  his  case  across  the  table. 
The  whole  party  were  soon  immersed  in  smoke. 

I  saw  that  my  presence  imposed  some  restraint  on  the 
conversation,  and  soon  sought  my  room  with  a  much  sadder 
spirit  and  a  heavier  heart  than  I  had  left  it  two  hours 
ibefore. 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

THE   BALL. 

Musing  and  thinking  and  fretting  together,  I  had  fallen 
asleep  on  my  sofa,  and  was  awakened  by  Mr.  Nixon  light- 
ing my  candles,  and  asking  me,  in  a  very  mild  voice,  if  I 
felt  unwell. 

''  No,  nothing  of  the  kind." 

*' Won't  you  go  down,  sir,  then?  It's  past  eleven  now, 
and  there  's  a  good  many  people  below." 

*' Who  have  come?  "  asked  I,  eagerly. 

'*  Well,  sir,"  said  he,  with  a  certain  degree  of  hesitation, 
"they're  not  much  to  talk  about.  There's  eight  or  .nine 
young  gentlemen  of  the  embassies  —  attaches  like  —  and 
there 's  fifteen  or  twenty  officers  of  the  Guides,  and  there  's 
some  more  that  look  like  travellers  out  of  the  hotels ;  they 
ain't  in  evening-dress." 

"  Are  there  no  ladies?  " 

' '  Yes ;  I  suppose  we  must  call  them  ladies,  sir.  There 's 
Madame  Rigault  and  her  two  daughters.'* 

"The  pastrycook?" 

"Yes,  sir;  and  there  are  the  Demoiselles  Janson,  of  the 
cigar-shop,  and  stunningly  dressed  they  are  too !  Amber 
satin  with  black  lace,  and  Spanish  veils  on  their  heads. 
And  there 's  that  little  Swedish  girl  —  I  believe  she 's  a 
Swede  —  that  sells  the  iced  drinks." 

' '  But  what  do  you  mean  ?  These  people  have  not  been 
invited.     How  have  they  come  here?  " 

"  Well,  sir,  I  must  n't  tell  you  a  lie ;  but  T  hope  you  '11  not 
betray  me  if  I  speak  in  confidence  to  you.  Here  's  how  it  all 
has  happened.  The  swells  all  refused  :  they  agreed  together 
that  they  'd  not  come  to  dinner,  nor  come  in  the  evening. 
Mr.  Cleremont  knows  why ;  but  it  ain't  for  me  to  say  it." 


THE  BALL.  495 

*'  But  I  don't  know,  and  I  desire  to  know !  "  cried  I, 
haughtily. 

*'  Well,  indeed,  sir,  it  *s  more  than  I  can  tell  you.  There  '& 
people  here  not  a  bit  corrector  than  herself  that  won't  meet 
her." 

*'Meet  whom?" 

'*  Madame,  sir,  —  Madame  Cleremont." 

*' Don't  dare  to  say  another  word,"  cried  I,  passionately. 
"  If  you  utter  a  syllable  of  disrespect  to  that  name,  I  '11 
fling  you  out  of  the  window." 

*' Don't  be  afraid.  Master  Digby,  I  know  my  station, 
and  I  never  forget  it,  sir.  I  was  only  telling  you  what  you 
asked  me,  not  a  word  more.  The  swells  sent  back  your 
father's  cards,  and  there 's  more  than  three  hundred  of  them 
returned." 

''  And  where 's  papa  now?  " 

''  In  bed,  sir.  He  told  his  valet  he  was  n't  to  be  dis- 
turbed, except  the  house  took  fire." 

"  Is  Madame  Cleremont  below?  " 

"  No,  sir ;  she  's  very  ill.  The  doctor  has  been  with  her,, 
and  he  's  coming  again  to-night." 

"  And  are  these  people  —  this  rabble  that  you  talk  of  — 
received  as  my  papa's  guests  ?  " 

"  Only  in  a  sort  of  a  way,  sir,"  said  he,  smiling.  "  You 
see  that  when  Mr*  Cleremont  perceived  that  there  was 
nothing  but  excuses  and  apologies  pouring  in,  he  told  me 
to  close  the  house,  and  that  we  'd  let  all  the  bourgeois  people 
into  the  grounds,  and  give  them  a  jolly  supper  and  plenty 
of  champagne ;  and  he  sent  word  to  a  many  of  the  young 
officers  to  come  up  and  have  a  lark ;  and  certainly,  as  the 
supper  was  there,  they  might  as  well  eat  it.  The  only 
puzzle  is  now,  won't  there  be  too  many,  for  he  sent  round 
to  all  Sir  Roger's  tradespeople,  —  all  at  least  that  has  good- 
looking  daughters,  —  and  they  're  pourin'  in  by  tens  and 
fifteens,  and  right  well  dressed  and  well  got  up  too." 

"  And  what  will  papa  say  to  all  this  to-morrow  ?  " 

''  Don't  you  know,  sir,  that  Sir  Roger  seldom  looks 
back,"  said  he,  with  a  cunning  look;  ''he'll  not  be  dis- 
turbed to-night,  for  the  house  is  shut  up,  and  the  bands 
are  playing,  one  at  the  lake,  the   other  at  the  end  of  the 


496  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

long  walk,  and  the  suppers  will  be  served  here  and  there, 
where  they  can  cheer  and  drink  toasts  without  annoying 
-any  one." 

"It 's  a  downright  infamy!  "  cried  I. 

"It  ain't  the  correct  thing,  sure  enough,  sir,  there's  none 
of  us  could  say  that,  but  it  will  be  rare  fun ;  and,  as  Captain 
Hotham  said,  "the  women  are  a  precious  sight  better  look- 
ing than  the  countesses.'  " 

"Where  is  Mr.  Eccles?" 

"I  saw  him  waltzing,  sir,  or  maybe  it  was  the  polka,  with 
Madame  Robineau  just  as  I  was  coming  up  to  you." 

"I'll  go  down  and  tell  Mr.  Cleremont  to  dismiss  his 
friends,"  cried  I,  boiling  over  with  anger.  "Papa  meant  this 
fete  to  celebrate  my  birthday.  I  '11  not  accept  such  rabble 
congratulations.  If  Mr.  Cleremont  must  have  an  orgie,  let 
him  seek  for  another  place  to  give  it  in." 

"Don't  go,  master,  don't,  I  entreat  you,"  cried  he,  im- 
ploringly. "You  '11  only  make  a  row,  sir,  and  bring  down 
Sir  Roger,  and  then  who  's  to  say  what  will  happen?  He  '11 
have  a  dozen  duels  on  his  hands  in  half  as  many  minutes. 
The  officers  won't  stand  being  called  to  account,  and  Sir 
Roger  is  not  the  man  to  be  sweet-tempered  with  them." 

"And  am  I  to  see  my  father's  name  insulted,  and  his  house 
dishonored  by  such  a  canaille  crew  as  this  ?  " 

"Just  come  down  and  see  them,  Master  Digby;  prettier, 
nicer  girls  you  never  saw  in  your  life,  and  pretty  behaved, 
too.  Ask  Mr.  Eccles  if  he  ever  mixed  with  a  nicer  com- 
pany. .  There,  now,  sir,  slip  on  your  velvet  jacket,  —  it 
looks  nicer  than  that  tail-coat,  —  and  come  down.  They  '11 
be  all  proud  and  glad  to  see  you,  and  won't  she  hold  her 
head  high  that  you  ask  to  take  a  turn  of  a  waltz  with  you ! " 

"And  how  should  I  face  my  father  to-morrow?  "  said  I, 
blushing  deeply. 

"Might  I  tell  you  a  secret.  Master  Digby?"  said  he, 
leaning  over  the  table,  and  speaking  almost  in  my  ear. 

"Go  on,"  said  I,  dryly. 

"I  know  well,  sir,  you'll  never  throw  me  over,  and  what 
J  'm  going  to  tell  you  is  worth  gold  to  you." 

"Go  on,"  cried  I,  for  he  had  ceased  to  speak. 

"Here  it  is,  then,"  said  he,  with  an  effort.     "The  greatest 


THE  BALL.  497 

sorrow  your  father  has,  Master  Digby,  is  that  he  thinks  you 
have  no  spirit  in  you,  —  that  you  're  a  mollyoot.  As  he  said 
one  day  to  Mr.  Cleremont,  '  You  must  teach  him  everything, 
he  has  no  "go"  in  himself ;  there's  nothing  in  his  nature 
but  what  somebody  else  put  into  it. '  " 

''He  never  said  that!  " 

"I  pledge  you  my  oath  he  did." 

"Well,  if  he  did,  he  meant  it  very  differently  from  what 
you  do." 

" There  's  no  two  meanings  to  it.  There  's  a  cheer!  "  cried 
he,  running  over  to  the  window  and  flinging  it  wide.  "I 
wonder  who's  come  now?  Oh,  it's  the  fireworks  are 
beginning." 

"I  '11  go  down,"  said  I;  but  out  of  what  process  of  rea- 
;Soning  came  that  resolve  I  am  unable  to  tell. 

"Maybe  they  won't  be  glad  to  see  you! "  cried  he,  as  he 
helped  me  on  with  my  jacket  and  arranged  the  heron's 
feathers  in  my  velvet  cap.  I  was  half  faltering  in  my  reso- 
lution, when  I  bethought  me  of  that  charge  of  feebleness  of 
character  Nixon  had  reported  to  me,  and  I  determined,  come 
what  might,  I  would  show  that  I  had  a  will  and  could 
follow  it.  In  less  than  five  minutes  after,  I  was  standing 
under  the  trees  in  the  garden,  shaking  hands  with  scores  of 
people  I  never  saw  before,  and  receiving  the  very  politest 
of  compliments  and  good  wishes  from  very  pretty  lips, 
aided  by  very  expressive  eyes. 

"Here's  Mademoiselle  Pauline  Delorme  refuses  to  dance 
with  me,"  cried  Eccles,  "since  she  has  seen  the  head  of  the 
house.  Digby,  let  me  present  you."  And  with  this  he  led 
me  up  to  a  very  beautiful  girl,  who,  though  only  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  celebrated  restaurateur  of  Brussels,  might  have  been 
a  princess,  so  far  as  look  and  breeding  and  elegance  were 
concerned. 

"  This  is  to  be  the  correct  thing,"  cried  Cleremont.  "We 
open  with  a  quadrille ;  take  your  partners,  gentlemen,  and 
to  your  places." 

Nothing  could  be  more  perfectly  proper  and  decorous 
than  this  dance.  It  is  possible,  perhaps,  that  we  exceeded 
n  little  on  the  score  of  reverential  observances :  we  bowed 
:and  courtesied  at  every  imaginable  opportunity,  and  with  an 


498  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

air  of  homage  that  smacked  of  a  court;  and  if  we  did 
raise  our  eyes  to  each  other,  as  we  recovered  from  the  obei- 
sance, it  was  with  a  look  of  the  softest  and  most  subdued 
deference.  I  really  began  to  think  that  the  only  hoydenish 
people  I  had  ever  seen  were  ladies  and  gentlemen.  As  for 
Eccles,  he  wore  an  air  of  almost  reverential  gravity,  and 
Hotham  was  sternly  composed.  At  last,  however,  we  came 
to  the  finish,  and  Cleremont,  clapping  his  hands  thrice, 
called  out  ^^ grand  rond,"  and,  taking  his  partner's  arm 
within  his  own,  led  off  at  a  galop ;  the  music  striking  up 
one  of  Strauss' s  wildest,  quickest  strains.  Away  he  went 
down  an  alley,  and  we  all  after  him,  stamping  and  laughing 
like  mad.  The  sudden  revulsion  from  the  quiet  of  the 
moment  before  was  electric;  no  longer  arm-in-arm,  but  with 
arms  close  clasped  around  the  waist,  away  we  went  over  the 
smooth  turf  with  a  wild  delight  to  which  the  music  imparted 
a  thrilling  ecstasy.  Now  through  the  dense  shade  we  broke 
into  a  blaze  of  light,  where  a  great  buffet  stood;  and  round 
this  we  all  swarmed  at  once,  and  glasses  were  filled  with 
champagne,  and  vivas  shouted  again  and  again ,  and  I  heard 
that  my  health  was  toasted,  and  a  very  sweet  voice  —  the 
lips  were  on  my  ear  —  whispered  I  know  not  what,  but  it 
sounded  very  like  wishing  me  joy  and  love,  while  others 
were  deafening  me  about  long  life  and  happiness. 

I  do  not  remember  —  I  do  not  want  to  remember  —  all 
the  nonsense  I  talked,  and  with  a  volubility  quite  new  to- 
me ;  my  brain  felt  on  fire  with  a  sort  of  wild  ecstasy,  and 
as  homage  and  deference  met  me  at  every  step,  my  every 
wish  acceded  to,  and  each  fancy  that  struck  me  hailed  at 
once  as  bright  inspiration,  no  wonder  was  it  if  I  lost  myself 
in  a  perfect  ocean  of  bliss.  I  told  Pauline  she  should  be 
the  queen  of  the  fete,  and  ordered  a  splendid  wreath  of 
flowers  to  be  brought,  which  I  placed  upon  her  brow,  and 
saluted  her  with  her  title,  amidst  the  cheering  shouts  of 
willing  toasters.  Except  to  make  a  tour  of  a  waltz  or  a 
polka  with  some  one  I  knew,  I  would  not  permit  her  to 
dance  with  any  but  myself ;  and  she,  I  must  say,  most  gra- 
ciously submitted  to  the  tyranny,  and  seemed  to  delight  in 
the  extravagant  expressions  of  my  admiration  for  her. 

If  I  was  madly  jealous  of  her,  I  felt  the  most  overwhelm- 


'Salter J.       U  '^iSc. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE  BALL.  499 

ing  delight  in  the  praises  bestowed  upon  her  beauty  and  her 
gracefulness.  Perhaps  the  consciousness  that  I  was  a  mere 
boy,  and  that  thus  a  freedom  might  be  used  towards  me 
that  would  have  been  reprehensible  with  one  older,  led  her 
to  treat  me  with  a  degree  of  intimacy  that  was  positively 
captivating;  and  before  our  third  waltz  was  over,  I  was 
calling  her  Pauline,  and  she  calling  me  Digby,  like  old 
friends. 

"Isn't  that  boy  of  Norcott's  going  it  to-night?"  I  heard 
a  man  say  as  I  swung  past  in  a  polka,  and  I  turned  fiercely 
to  catch  the  speaker's  eye,  and  show  him  I  meant  to  call 
him  to  book. 

"Eh,  Eccles,  your  pupil  is  a  credit  to  you!  "  cried 
another. 

"I  'm  a  Dutchman  if  that  fellow  does  n't  rival  his  father." 

"He'll  be  far  and  away  beyond  him,"  muttered  another; 
"for  he  has  none  of  Norcott's  crotchets, — he's  a  scamp 
'  pur  et  simple.'  " 

"Where  are  you  breaking  away  from  me,  Digby?"  said 
Pauline,  as  I  tried  to  shake  myself  free  of  her. 

"I  want  to  follow  those  men.  I  have  a  word  to  say  to 
them." 

"You  shall  do  no  such  thing,  dearest,"  muttered  she. 
"You  have  just  told  me  I  am  to  be  your  little  wife,  and 
I  'm  not  going  to  see  my  husband  rushing  into  a  stupid 
quarrel." 

"And  you  are  mine,  then,"  cried  I,  "and  you  will  wear 
this  ring  as  a  betrothal?    Come,  let  me  take  off  your  glove." 

"That  will  do,  Digby;  that's  quite  enough  for  courtesy 
and  a  little  too  much  for  deference,"  whispered  Eccles  in 
my  ear;  for  I  was  kissing  her  hand  about  a  hundred  times 
over,  and  she  laughing  at  my  raptures  as  an  excellent  joke. 
"I  think  you  'd  better  lead  the  way  to  supper." 

Secretly  resolving  that  I  would  soon  make  very  short  work 
of  Mr.  Eccles  and  his  admonitions,  I  gave  him  a  haughty 
glance  and  moved  on.  I  remember  very  little  more  than 
that  I  walked  to  the  head  of  the  table  and  placed  Pauline  on 
my  right.  I  know  I  made  some  absurd  speech  in  return  for 
their  drinking  my  health,  and  spoke  of  ws,  and  what  we 
—  Pauline  and   myself  —  felt,  and  with  what  pleasure  we 


500  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTTS. 

should  see  our  friends  often  around  us,  and  a  deal  of  that 
tawdry  trash  that  comes  into  a  brain  addled  with  noise 
and  heated  with  wine.  I  was  frequently  interrupted; 
uproarious  cheers  at  one  moment  would  break  forth,  but 
still  louder  laughter  would  ring  out  and  convulse  the  whole 
assembly.  Even  addled  and  confused  as  I  was,  I  could  see 
that  some  were  my  partisans  and  friends,  who  approved  of 
all  I  said,  and  wished  me  to  give  a  free  course  to  my  feel- 
ings ;  and  there  were  others  —  two  or  three  —  who  tried  to 
stop  me;  and  one  actually  said  aloud,  "If  that  boy  of  Nor- 
cott's  is  not  suppressed,  we  shall  have  no  supper." 

Recalled  to  my  dignity  as  a  host  by  this  impertinence,  I 
believe  I  put  some  restraint  on  my  eloquence,  and  I  now 
addressed  myself  to  do  the  honors  of  the  table.  Alas,  my 
attentions  seldom  strayed  beyond  my  lovely  neighbor,  and 
I  firmly  believed  that  none  could  remark  the  rapture  with 
which  I  gazed  on  her,  or  as  much  as  suspected  that  I  had 
never  quitted  the  grasp  of  her  hand  from  the  moment  we  sat 
down. 

"I  suspect  you  'd  better  let  Mademoiselle  dance  the  cotil- 
lon with  the  Count  Vauglas,"  whispered  Eccles  in  my  ear. 

"And  why,  sir?"  rejoined  I,  half  fiercely. 

"I  think  you  might  guess,"  said  he,  with  a  smile;  "at 
least,  you  could  if  you  were  to  get  up." 

"And  would  she  —  would  Pauline  —  I  mean,  would  Made- 
moiselle Delorme  —  approve  of  this  arrangement  ?  " 

"No,  Monsieur  Digby,  not  if  it  did  not  come  from  you. 
"We  shall  sit  in  the  shade  yonder  for  half  an  hour  or  so,  and 
then,  when  you  are  rested,  we  '11  join  the  cotillon." 

"Get  that  boy  off  to  bed,  Eccles,"  said  Cleremont,  who 
did  not  scruple  to  utter  the  words  aloud. 

I  started  up  to  make  an  indignant  rejoinder;  some  fierce 
insult  was  on  my  lips;  but  passion  and  excitement  and 
wine  mastered  me,  and  I  sank  back  on  my  seat  overcome 
and  senseless. 


CHAPTER  Xin. 

A   NEXT  MORNING. 

I  COULD  not  awake  on  the  day  after  the  fete,  I  was  con- 
scious that  Nixon  was  making  a  considerable  noise,  —  that 
he  shut  and  opened  doors  and  windows,  splashed  the  water 
into  my  bath,  and  threw  down  my  boots  with  an  unwonted 
energy ;  but  through  all  this  consciousness  of  disturbance  I 
slept  on,  and  was  determined  to  sleep,  let  him  make  what 
uproar  he  pleased. 

"It 's  nigh  two  o'clock,  sir!  "  whispered  he  in  my  ear,  and 
I  replied  by  a  snort. 

"I  'm  very  sorry  to  be  troublesome,  sir;  but  the  master  is 
very  impatient :  he  was  getting  angry  when  I  went  in  last 
time." 

These  words  served  to  dispel  my  drowsiness  at  once,  and 
the  mere  thought  of  my  father's  displeasure  acted  on  me 
like  a  strong  stimulant. 

"Does  papa  want  me?"  cried  I,  sitting  up  in  bed;  "did 
you  say  papa  wanted  me  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  a  deep  voice;  and  my  father  entered  the 
room,  dressed  for  the  street,  and  with  his  hat  on. 

"You  may  leave  us,"  said  he  to  Nixon;  and  as  the  man 
withdrew,  my  father  took  a  chair  and  sat  down  close  to  my 
bedside. 

"I  have  sent  three  messages  to  you  this  morning,"  said 
he,  gravely,  "and  am  forced  at  last  to  come  myself." 

I  was  beginning  my  apologies,  when  he  stopped  me,  and 
said,  "That  will  do;  I  have  no  wish  to  be  told  why  you 
overslept  yourself;  indeed,  I  have  already  heard  more  on 
that  score  than  I  care  for." 

He  paused,  and  though  perhaps  he  expected  me  to  say 
something,  I  was  too  much  terrified  to  speak. 


502  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"I  perceive,"  said  he,  "you  understand  me;  you  appre- 
hend that  I  know  of  your  doings  of  last  night,  and  that  any 
attempt  at  excuse  is  hopeless.  I  have  not  come  here  to 
reproach  you  for  your  misconduct ;  I  reproach  myself  for  a 
mistaken  estimate  of  you;  I  ought  to  have  known  —  and  if 
you  had  been  a  horse  I  would  have  known  —  that  your  cross- 
breeding would  tell  on  you.  The  bad  drop  was  sure  to 
betray  itself.  I  will  not  dwell  on  this,  nor  have  I  time. 
Your  conduct  last  night  makes  my  continued  residence  here 
impossible.  I  cannot  continue  in  a  city  where  my  trades- 
people have  become  my  guests,  and  where  the  honors  of  my 
house  have  been  extended  to  my  tailor  and  my  butcher.  I 
shall  leave  this,  therefore,  as  soon  as  I  can  conclude  my 
arrangements  to  sell  this  place :  you  must  quit  it  at  once. 
Eccles  will  be  ready  to  start  with  you  this  evening  for  the 
Rhine,  and  then  for  the  interior  of  Germany,  —  I  suspect 
"Weimar  will  do.  He  will  be  paymaster,  and  you  will  con- 
form to  his  wishes  strictly  as  regards  expense.  Whether  you 
study  or  not,  whether  you  employ  your  time  profitably  and 
creditably,  or  whether  you  pass  it  in  indolence,  is  a  matter 
that  completely  regards  yourself.  As  for  me,  my  conscience 
is  acquitted  when  I  provide  you  with  the  means  of  acquire- 
ment, and  I  no  more  engage  you  to  benefit  by  these  advan- 
tages than  I  do  to  see  you  eat  the  food  that  is  placed  before 
you.  The  compact  that  unites  us  enjoins  distinct  duties 
from  each.  You  need  not  write  to  me  till  I  desire  you  to 
do  so ;  and  when  I  think  it  proper  we  should  meet,  I  will  tell 
you." 

If,  while  he  spoke  these  harsh  words  to  me,  the  slightest 
touch  of  feeling  —  had  one  trace  of  even  sorrow  crossed  his 
face,  my  whole  heart  would  have  melted  at  once,  and  I 
would  have  thrown  myself  at  his  feet  for  forgiveness. 
There  was,  however,  a  something  so  pitiless  in  his  tone, 
and  a  look  so  full  of  scorn  in  his  steadfast  eye,  that  every 
sentiment  of  pride  within  me  —  that  same  pride  I  inherited 
from  himself  —  stimulated  me  to  answer  him,  and  I  said 
boldly:  "If  the  people  I  saw  here  last  night  were  not  as 
well  born  as  your  habitual  guests,  sir,  I'll  venture  to'say 
there  was  nothing  in  their  manner  or  deportment  to  be 
ashamed  of." 


A  NEXT  MORNING.  503 

*'I  am  told  that  Mademoiselle  Pauline  Delorme  was  charm- 
ing," said  he;  and  the  sarcasm  of  his  glance  covered  me 
with  shame  and  confusion.  He  had  no  need  to  say  more: 
I  could  not  utter  a  word. 

"This  is  a  topic  I  will  not  discuss  with  you,  sir,"  said  he, 
after  a  pause,  "/intended  you  to  be  a  gentleman,  and  to 
live  with  gentlemen.  Your  tastes  incline  differently,  and 
1  make  no  opposition  to  them.  As  I  have  told  you  already, 
I  was  willing  to  launch  you  into  life;  I  '11  not  engage  to  be 
your  pilot.  Any  interest  I  take  or  could  take  in  you  must 
be  the  result  of  your  own  qualities.  These  have  not  im- 
pressed me  strongly  up  to  this ;  and  were  I  to  judge  by  what 
I  have  seen,  I  should  send  you  back  to  those  you  came 
from." 

"Do  so,  then,  if  it  will  only  give  me  back  the  nature 
I  brought  away  with  me!"  cried  I,  passionately;  and  my 
throat  swelled  till  I  felt  almost  choked  with  emotion. 

"That  nature,"  said  he,  with  a  sneer  on  the  word,  "was 
costumed,  if  I  remember  right,  in  a  linen  blouse  and  a  pair 
of  patched  shoes ;  and  I  believe  they  have  been  preserved 
along  with  some  other  family  relics." 

I  bethought  me  at  once  of  the  tower  and  its  humble 
furniture,  and  a  sense  of  terror  overcame  me,  that  I  was 
in  presence  of  one  who  could  cherish  hate  with  such 
persistence. 

"The  fumes  of  your  last  night's  debauch  are  some 
excuse  for  your  bad  manners,  sir,"  said  he,  rising.  "I 
leave  you  to  sleep  them  off;  only  remember  that  the  train 
starts  at  eight  this  evening,  and  it  is  my  desire  you  do  not 
miss  it." 

With  this  he  left  me.  I  arose  at  once  and  began  to  dress. 
It  was  a  slow  proceeding,  for  1  would  often  stop,  and  sit 
down  to  think  what  course  would  best  befit  me  to  take  at 
this  moment.  At  one  instant  it  seemed  to  me  I  ought  to 
follow  him,  and  declare  that  the  splendid  slavery  in  which 
I  lived  had  no  charm  for  me,  — that  the  faintest  glimmering 
of  self-respect  and  independence  was  more  my  ambition 
than  all  the  luxuries  that  surrounded  me;  and  when  I  had 
resolved  I  would  do  this,  a  sudden  dread  of  his  presence, 
—  his  eye  that  I  could  never  face  without  shrinking,  —  the 


504  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

tones  of  his  voice  that  smote  me  like  a  lash,  —  so  abashed 
me  that  I  gave  up  the  effort  with  despair. 

Might  he  not  consent  to  give  me  some  pittance  —  enough 
to  save  her  from  the  burden  of  my  support  —  and  send  me 
back  to  my  mother?  Oh,  if  I  could  summon  courage  to  ask 
this!  This  assistance  need  be  continued  only  for  a  few 
years,  for  I  hoped  and  believed  I  should  not  always  have 
to  live  as  a  dependant.  What  if  I  were  to  write  him  a  few 
lines  to  this  purport?  I  could  do  this  even  better  than 
speak  it. 

I  sat  down  at  once  and  began :  — 

"Dear  papa,"  —  he  would  never  permit  me  to  use  a  more 
endearing  word.  ''  Dear  papa,  I  hope  you  will  forgive  me 
troubling  you  about  myself  and  my  future.  I  would  like 
to  fit  myself  for  some  career  or  calling  by  which  I  might  be- 
come independent.  I  could  work  very  hard  and  study  very^ 
closely  if  I  were  back  with  my  mother." 

As  I  reached  this  far,  the  door  opened,  and  Eccles 
appeared. 

"  All  right !  "  cried  he ;  "I  was  afraid  I  should  catch  you 
in  bed  still,  and  I  'm  glad  you  're  up  and  preparing  for  the 
road.     Are  you  nearly  ready?  " 

"Not  quite;  I  wanted  to  write  a  letter  before  I  go.  I 
was  just  at  it." 

"Write  from  Verviers  or  Bonn;  you'll  have  lots  of  time 
on  the  road." 

"Ay,  but  my  letter  might  save  me  from  the  journey  if  I 
sent  it  off  now." 

He  looked  amazed  at  this,  and  I  at  once  told  him  my  plan 
and  showed  him  what  I  had  written. 

"You  don't  mean  to  say  you  'd  have  courage  to  send  this- 
to  your  father  ?  " 

"And  why  not?" 

"Well,  all  I  have  to  say  is,  don't  do  it  till  I  'm  off  the 
premises;  for  I  'd  not  be  here  when  he  reads  it  for  a  trifle. 
My  dear  Digby,"  said  he,  with  a  changed  tone,  "you  don't 
know  Sir  Roger;  you  don't  know  the  violence  of  his  temper 
if  he  imagines  himself  what  he  calls  outraged,  which  some- 
times means  questioned.  Take  your  hat  and  stick,  and 
go  seek  your  fortune,  in  Heaven's  name,  if  you  must;  but 


A  NEXT  MORNING.  505 

don't  set  out  on  your  life's  journey  with  a  curse  or  a  kick, 
or  possibly  both.  If  I  preach  patience,  my  dear  boy,  I 
have  had  to  practise  it  too.  Put  up  your  traps  in  your 
portmanteau;  come  down  and  take  some  dinner:  we  '11  start 
with  the  night-train ;  and  take  my  word  for  it,  we  '11  have  a 
jolly  ramble  and  enjoy  ourselves  heartily.  If  I  know  any- 
thing of  life,  it  is  that  there  's  no  such  mistake  in  the  world 
as  hunting  up  annoyances.  Let  them  find  us  if  they  can, 
but  let  us  never  run  after  them." 

"My  heart  is  too  heavy  for  such  enjoyment  as  you  talk 
of." 

"It  won't  be  so  to-morrow,  or,  at  all  events,  the  day  after. 
Come,  stir  yourself  now  with  your  packing ;  a  thought  has 
just  struck  me  that  you  '11  be  very  grateful  to  me  for,  when 
I  tell  it  you." 

"What  is  it?"  asked  I,  half  carelessly. 

"  You  must  ask  with  another  guess-look  in  your  eye  if  yoa 
expect  me  to  tell  you." 

"You  could  tell  me  nothing  that  would  gladden  me." 

"Nor  propose  anything  that  you'd  like?"  asked  he. 

"Nor  that,  either,"  said  I,  despondingly. 

"Oh,  if  that  be  the  case,  I  give  up  my  project;  not  that 
it  was  much  of  a  project,  after  all.  What  I  was  going  to 
suggest  was  that  instead  of  dining  here  we  should  put  our 
traps  into  a  cab,  and  drive  down  to  Delorme's  and  have  a 
pleasant  little  dinner  there,  in  the  garden ;  it 's  quite  close  to 
the  railroad,  so  that  we  could  start  at  the  last  whistle." 

"That  does  sound  pleasantly,"  said  I;  "there's  nothing 
more  irksome  in  its  way  than  hanging  about  a  station  wait- 
ing for  departure." 

"So,  then,  you  agree?  "  cried  he,  with  a  malicious  twinkle 
in  his  eye  that  I  affected  not  to  understand. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  indolently;  "I  see  little  against  it;  and 
if  nothing  else,  it  saves  me  a  leave-taking  with  Captain 
Hotham  and  Cleremont." 

"  By  the  way,  you  are  not  to  ask  to  see  Madame ;  your 
father  reminded  me  to  tell  you  this.  The  doctors  say  she  is 
not  to  be  disturbed  on  any  account.  What  a  chance  that  I 
didnot  forget  this!" 

Whether  it  was  that  I  was  too  much  concerned  for  my 


^06  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

own  misfortunes  to  have  a  thought  that  was  not  selfish,  or 
that  another  leave-taking  that  loomed  in  the  distance  was 
^uppermost  in  my  thoughts,  certain  it  is,  I  felt  this  privation 
far  less  acutely  than  I  might. 

"She's  a  nice  little  woman,  and  deserves  a  better  lot 
than  she  has  met  with." 

"What  sort  of  dinner  will  Delorme  give  us?"  said  I, 
affecting  the  air  of  a  man  about  town,  but  in  reality  throw- 
ing out  the  bait  to  lead  the  talk  in  that  direction. 

"First-rate,  if  we  let  him;  that  is,  if  we  only  say,  *  Order 
dinner  for  us.  Monsieur  Pierre.'  There  's  no  man  under- 
stands such  a  mandate  more  thoroughly." 

"Then  that 's  what  I  shall  say,"  cried  I,  "as  I  cross  his 
threshold." 

"  He  '11  serve  you  Madeira  with  your  soup,  and  Stein- 
berger  with  your  fish,  thirty  francs  a  bottle,  each  of  them." 

"Be  it  so.  We  shall  drink  to  our  pleasant  journey,"  said 
I ;  and  I  actually  thought  my  voice  had  caught  the  tone  and 
•oadence  of  my  father's  as  I  spoke. 


CHAPTER  XW. 

A   GOOD-BYE. 

While  I  strolled  into  the  garden  to  select  a  table  for  our 
dinner,  Eccles  went  in  search  of  Mr.  Delorme;  and  though 
he  had  affected  to  say  that  the  important  duty  of  devising 
the  feast  should  be  confided  to  the  host,  I  could  plainly  see 
that  my  respected  tutor  accepted  his  share  in  that  high 
responsibility. 

I  will  only  say  of  the  feast  in  question,  that,  though  I  was 
daily  accustomed  to  the  admirable  dinners  of  my  father's 
table,  I  had  no  conception  of  what  exquisite  devices  in 
cookery  could  be  produced  by  the  skill  of  an  accomplished 
restaurateur,  left  free  to  his  own  fancy,  and  without  limita- 
tion as  to  the  bill. 

One  thing  alone  detracted  from  the  perfect  enjoyment  of 
the  banquet.  It  was  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Delorme  himself, 
white-cravated  and  gloved,  carrying  in  the  soup.  It  was 
an  attention  that  he  usually  reserved  for  great  personages, 
royalties,  or  high  dignitaries  of  the  court;  and  I  was  shocked 
that  he  should  have  selected  me  for  the  honor,  not  the  less 
as  it  was  only  a  few  hours  before  he  and  I  had  been  drink- 
ing champagne  with  much  clinking  of  glasses  together,  and 
interchanging  the  most  affectionate  vows  of  eternal  friend- 
ship. 

I  arose  from  my  chair  to  salute  him ;  but,  as  he  deposited 
the  tureen  upon  the  table,  he  stepped  back  and  bowed  low, 
and  retreated  in  this  fashion,  with  the  same  humble  rever- 
ence at  every  step,  till  he  was  lost  in  the  distance. 

"Sit  down,"  said  Eccles,  with  a  peculiar  look,  as  though 
to  warn  me  that  I  was  forgetting  my  dignity;  and  then, 
to  divert  my  attention,  he  added,  "That  green  seal  is  an 
attention  Delorme  offers  you,  —  a  very  rare  favor,  too,  —  a 


508  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTTS. 

bottle  of  his  own  peculiar  Johannisberg.  Let  us  drink  his 
health.  Now,  Digby,  I  call  this  something  very  nigb 
perfection." 

It  was  a  theme  my  tutor  understood  thoroughly,  and  there 
was  not  a  dish  nor  a  wine  that  he  did  not  criticise. 

''I  was  always  begging  your  father  to  take  this  cook, 
Digby,"  said  he,  with*,  half  sigh.  "Even  with  a  first-rate 
artist  you  need  change,  otherwise  your  dinners  become 
manneristic,  as  ours  have  become  of  late." 

He  then  went  on  to  show  me  that  the  domestic  cook, 
always  appealing  to  the  small  public  of  the  family,  gets- 
narrowed  in  his  views  and  bounded  in  his  resources.  He 
compared  them,  I  remember,  to  the  writers  in  certain  reli- 
gious newspapers,  who  must  always  go  on  spicing  higher 
and  higher  as  the  palates  of  their  clients  grow  more  jaded. 
How  he  worked  out  his  theme  afterwards  I  cannot  tell,  for 
I  was  watching  the  windows  of  the  house,  and  stealing 
glances  down  the  alleys  in  the  garden,  longing  for  one 
look,  ever  so  fleeting,  of  my  lovely  partner  of  the  night 
before. 

"I  see,  young  gentleman,"  said  he,  evidently  nettled  at 
my  inattention,  "your  thoughts  are  not  with  me." 

"How  long  have  we  to  stay,  sir?  "  said  I,  reverting  to  the 
respect  I  tendered  him  at  my  lessons. 

"You  have  thirty-eight  minutes,"  said  he,  examining  his 
watch:  "which  I  purpose  to  apportion  in  this  wise,  —  eight 
for  the  douceur,  five  for  the  cheese,  fifteen  for  the  dessert, 
five  for  cofi'ee  and  a  glass  of  curaqoa.  The  bill  and  our 
parting  compliments  will  take  the  rest,  giving  us  three  min- 
utes to  walk  across  to  the  station." 

These  sort  of  pedantries  were  a  passion  with  him,  and  I 
did  not  interpose  a  word  as  he  spoke. 

''What  a  pineapple!"  cried  a  young  fellow  from  an 
adjoining  table,  as  a  waiter  deposited  a  magnificent  pine  in 
the  midst  of  the  bouquet  that  adorned  our  table. 

"  Monsieur  Delorme  begs  to  say,  sir,  this  has  just  arrived 
from  Laeken." 

"  Don't  you  know  who  that  is?  "  said  a  companion,  in  a 
low  voice ;  but  my  hearing,  ever  acute,  caught  the  words, 
''He's  that  boy  of  Norcott's." 


A  GOOD-BYE.  609 

I  started  as  if  I  had  received  a  blow.  It  was  time  to 
resent  these  insolences,  and  make  an  end  of  them  for- 
ever. 

'*  You  heard  what  that  man  yonder  has  called  me?  "  said 
I'  to  Eccles. 

''  No ;  I  was  not  minding  him." 

"  The  old  impertinence,  —  '  That  boy  of  Norcott's.'  " 

I  arose,  and  took  the  cane  I  had  laid  against  a  chair. 
What  I  was  about  to  do  I  knew  not.  I  felt  I  should  launch 
some  insolent  provocation.  As  for  what  should  follow,  the 
event  might  decide  that. 

"I'd  not  mind  him,  Digby,"  said  Eccles,  carelessly,  as 
he  lit  his  cigarette,  and  stretched  his  legs  on  a  vacant  chair. 
I  took  no  notice  of  his  words,  but  walked  on.  Before,  how- 
ever, I  had  made  three  steps  my  eyes  caught  the  flutter  of  a 
dress  at  the  end  of  the  alley.  It  was  merely  the  last  folds  of 
some  floating  muslin,  but  it  was  enough  to  rout  all  other 
thoughts  from  my  head,  and  I  flew  down  the  walk  with 
lightning  speed.  I  was  right;  it  was  Pauline.  In  an 
instant  I  was  beside  her. 

"  Dearest,  darling  Pauline,"  I  cried,  seizing  her  round  the 
waist  and  kissing  her  cheek,  before  she  well  knew,  "  how 
happy  it  makes  me  to  see  you  even  for  a  few  seconds." 

"Ah,  milord,  I  did  not  expect  to  see  you  here,"  said 
she,  half  distantly. 

"  I  am  not  milord;  I  am  your  own  Digby  —  Digby  Nor- 
cott,  who  loves  you,  and  will  make  you  his  wife." 

"Ma  foi!  children  don't  marry,  —  at  least  demoiselles 
don't  marry  them,"  said  she,  with  a  saucy  laugh. 

"  I  am  no  more  an  'enfant,'"  said  I,  with  a  passionate 
stress  on  the  word,  "  than  I  was  last  night,  when  you  never 
left  my  arm  except  to  sit  at  my  side  at  supper." 

"But  you  are  going  away,"  said  she,  pouting;  "else 
why  that  travelling-dress,  and  that  sack  strapped  at  your 
side?" 

"  Only  for  a  few  weeks.  A  short  tour  up  the  Rhine, 
Pauline,  to  see  the  world,  and  complete  my  education; 
and  then  I  will  come  back  and  marry  you,  and  you  shall 
be  mistress  of  a  beautiful  house,  and  have  everything  you 
can  think  of." 


510  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

'*  Vrai?  "  asked  she,  with  a  little  laugh. 

*'  I  swear  it  by  this  kiss." 

'*  Pardie,  Monsieur?  you  are  very  adventurous,"  said  she, 
repulsing  me ;  '*  you  will  make  me  not  regret  that  you  are 
going  so  soon." 

"  Oh,  Pauline !  when  you  know  that  I  adore  you,  that 
I  only  value  wealth  to  share  it  with  you ;  that  all  I  ask  of 
life  is  to  devote  it  to  you." 

"And  that  you  haven't  got  full  thirty  seconds  left  for 
that  admirable  object,"  broke  in  Eccles.  "  We  must  run 
for  it  like  fury,  boy,  or  we  shall  be  late." 

"I '11  not  go." 

"  Then  I'll  be  shot  if  I  stay  here  and  meet  your  father," 
said  he,  turning  away. 

"Oh,  Pauline,  dearest,  dearest  of  my  heart!"  I  sobbed 
out,  as  I  fell  upon  her  neck ;  and  the  vile  bell  of  the  railway 
rang  out  with  its  infernal  discord  as  I  clasped  her  to  my 
heart. 

"Come  along,  and  confound  you,"  cried  Eccles;  and 
with  a  porter  on  one  side  and  Eccles  on  the  other,  I  was 
hurried  along  down  the  garden,  across  a  road,  and  along 
a  platform,  where  the  station-master,  wild  with  passion, 
stamped  and  swore  in  a  very  different  mood  from  that  in 
which  he  smiled  at  me  across  the  supper-table  the  night 
before. 

"We're  waiting  for  that  boy  of  Norcott's,  I  vow,"  said 
an  old  fellow  with  a  gray  moustache;  and  I  marked  him 
out  for  future  recognition. 

Unlike  my  first  journey,  where  all  seemed  confusion, 
trouble,  and  annoyance,  I  now.  saw  only  pleasant  faces, 
and  people  bent  on  enjoyment.  We  were  on  the  great 
tourist  road  of  Europe,  and  it  seemed  as  though  every 
one  was  bound  on  some  errand  of  amusement.  Eccles,  too, 
was  a  pleasant  contrast  to  the  courier  who  took  charge  of 
me  on  my  first  journey.  Nothing  could  be  more  genial 
than  his  manner.  He  treated  me  with  a  perfect  equality, 
and  by  that  greatest  of  all  flatteries  to  one  of  my  age, 
induced  me  to  believe  that  I  was  actually  companionable  to 
himself. 

I  will  not  pretend  that  he  was  an  instructive  companion. 


A  GOOD-BYE.  611 

He  had  neither  knowledge  of  history  nor  feeling  for  art,  and 
rather  amused  himself  with  sneering  at  both,  and  quizzing 
such  of  our  fellow-travellers  as  the  practice  was  safe  with. 
But  he  was  always  gay,  always  in  excellent  spirits,  ready  ta 
make  light  of  the  passing  annoyances  of  the  road,  and,  as  he 
said  himself,  he  always  carried  a  quart-bottle  of  condensed 
sunshine  with  him  against  a  rainy  day ;  and,  of  my  own 
knowledge,  I  can  say  his  supply  seemed  inexhaustible. 

His  cheery  manner,  his  bright  good  looks,  and  his  invari- 
able good-humor  won  upon  every  one,  and  the  sourest  and 
least  genial  people  thawed  into  some  show  of  warmth  under 
his  contagious  pleasantry. 

He  did  not  care  in  what  direction  we  went,  and  would 
have  left  it  entirely  to  me  to  decide,  had  I  been  able  to 
determine.  All  he  stipulated  for  was:  *'No  barbarism, 
no  Oberland  or  glacier  humbug.  No  Saxon  Switzerland 
abominations.  So  long  as  we  travel  in  a  crowd,  and  meet 
good  cookery  every  day,  you'll  find  me  charming." 

Into  this  philosophy  he  inducted  me.  "Make  life  pleas- 
ant, Digby ;  never  go  in  search  of  annoyances.  Duns  and 
disagreeables  will  come  of  themselves,  and  it's  no  bad 
fun  dodging  them.  It's  only  a  fool  ever  keeps  their 
company." 

A  more  shameless  immorality  might  have  revolted  me, 
but  this  peddling  sort  of  wickedness,  this  half-jesting  with 
right  and  wrong,  —  giving  to  morals  the  aspect  of  a  game 
in  which  a  certain  kind  of  address  was  practicable,  —  was 
very  seductive  to  one  of  my  age  and  temper.  I  fancied,  too, 
that  I  was  becoming  a  consummate  man  of  the  world,  and  his 
praises  of  my  proficiency  were  unsparingly  bestowed. 

Attaching  ourselves  to  this  or  that  party  of  travellers, 
we  would  go  off  here  or  there,  in  any  direction,  for  four 
or  five  days ;  and  though  I  usually  found  myself  growing 
fond  of  those  I  became  more  intimate  with,  and  sorry  to 
part  from  them,  Eccles  invariably  wearied  of  the  pleasant- 
est  people  after  a  day  or  two.  Incessant  change  seemed 
essential  to  him,  and  his  nature  and  his  spirits  flagged 
when  denied  it. 

What  I  least  liked  about  him,  however,  was  a  habit  he 
had  of  "trotting"  me  out  —  his  own  name  for  it  —  before 


512  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

Strangers.  My  knowledge  of  languages,  my  skill  at  games, 
my  little  musical  talents,  he  would  parade  in  a  way  that  I 
found  positively  offensive.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  I  found 
he  represented  me  as  the  son  of  a  man  of  immense  wealth 
and  of  a  rank  commensurate  with  his  fortune. 

One  must  have  gone  through  the  ordeal  of  such  a  repre- 
sentation to  understand  its  vexations,  to  know  all  the  imper- 
tinences it  can  evoke  from  some,  all  the  slavish  attentions 
from  others.  I  feel  a  hot  flush  of  shame  on  my  cheek  now, 
after  long  years,  as  I  think  of  the  mortifications  I  went 
through,  as  Eccles  would  suggest  that  I  should  buy  some 
princely  chateau  that  we  saw  in  passing,  or  some  lordly 
park  alongside  of  which  our  road  was  lying. 

As  to  remonstrating  with  him  on  this  score,  or,  indeed, 
on  any  other,  it  was  utterly  hopeless ;  not  to  say  that  it 
was  just  as  likely  he  would  amuse  the  first  group  of  travel- 
lers we  met  by  a  ludicrous  version  of  my  attempt  to  coerct 
him  into  good   behavior. 

One  day  he  pushed  my  patience  beyond  all  limit,  and  I 
grew  downright  angry  witli  him.  I  had  been  indulging  in 
that  harmless  sort  of  half-flirtation  with  a  young  lady, 
a  fellow-traveller;  which,  not  transgressing  the  bounds  of 
small  attentions,  does  not  even   excite  remark  or  rebuke. 

"  Don't  listen  to  that  young  gentleman's  blandishments," 
said  he,  laughing;  ''for,  young  as  he  looks,  he  is  already 
engaged.  Come,  come,  don't  look  as  though  you'd  strike 
me,  Digby,  but  deny  it  if  you  can." 

We  were,  fortunately  for  me,  coming  into  a  station  as  he 
spoke.  I  sprang  out,  and  travelled  third-class  the  rest  of 
the  day  to  avoid  him,  and  when  we  met  at  night,  I  declared 
that  with  one  such  liberty  more  I  'd  part  company  with  him 
forever. 

The  hearty  good -humor  with  which  he  assured  me  I  should 
not  be  offended  again  almost  made  me  ashamed  of  my  com- 
plaint. We  shook  hands  over  our  reconciliation,  and  vowed 
we  were  better  friends  than  ever. 

What  it  cost  him  to  abandon  this  habit  of  exalting  me 
before  strangers,  how  nearly  it  touched  one  of  the  chief 
pleasures  of  his  life,  I  was,  as  I  thought,  soon  to  see  in  the 
altered  tone  of  his  manner.     In  fact,   it  totally  destroyed 


A  GOOD-BYE.  613 

the  easy  flippancy  he  used  to  wield,  and  a  facility  with 
strangers  that  once  seemed  like  a  special  gift  with  him.  I 
tried  in  vain  to  rally  him  out  of  this  half  depression ;  but 
it  was  clear  he  was  not  a  man  of  many  resources,  and  that 
I  had  already  sapped  a  principal  one. 

While  we  thus  journeyed,  he  said  to  me  one  day,  "  I  find, 
Digby,  our  money  is  running  short;  we  must  make  for 
Zurich :  it  is  the  nearest  of  the  places  on  our  letter  of 
credit." 

I  assented,  of  course,  and  we  bade  adieu  to  a  pleasant 
family  with  whom  we  had  been  travelling,  and  who  were 
bound  for  Dresden,  assuring  them  we  should  meet  them 
on  the  Elbe. 

Eccles  had  grown  of  late  more  and  more  serious :  not 
alone  had  his  gayety  deserted  him,  but  he  grew  absent  and 
forgetful  to  an  absurd  extent;  and  it  was  evident  some 
great  preoccupation  had  hold  of  him.  During  the  entire 
of  the  last  day  before  we  reached  Zurich  he  scarcely  spoke 
a  word,  and  as  I  saw  that  he  had  received  some  letters  at 
Schaffhausen,  I  attributed  his  gloom  to  their  tidings.  As 
he  had  not  spoken  to  me  of  bad  news,  I  felt  ashamed  to 
obtrude  myself  on  his  confidence  and  kept  silent,  and  not 
a  word  passed  between  us  as  we  went.  He  had  telegraphed 
to  the  banker,  a  certain  Mr.  Heinfetter,  to  order  rooms  for 
us  at  the  hotel ;  and  as  we  alighted  at  the  door,  the  gentle- 
man himself  was  there  to  meet  us. 

''Herr  Eccles?"  said  he,  eagerly,  lifting  his  hat  as  we 
descended;  and  Eccles  moved  towards  him,  and,  taking 
his  arm,  walked  away  to  some  distance,  leaving  me  alone 
and  unnoticed.  For  several  minutes  they  appeared  in  clo- 
sest confab,  their  heads  bent  close  together,  and  at  last  I 
saw  Eccles  shake  himself  free  from  the  other's  arm,  and 
throw  up  both  his  hands  in  the  air  with  a  gesture  of  wild 
despair.  I  began  to  suspect  some  disaster  had  befallen 
our  remittances,  that  they  were  lost  or  suppressed,  and 
that  Eccles  was  overwhelmed  by  the  misfortune.  I  own  I 
could  not  participate  in  the  full  measure  of  the  misery  it 
seemed  to  cause  him,  and  I  lighted  a  cigar  and  sat  down 
on  a  stone  bench  to  wait  patiently  his  return. 

*'I  believe  you  are  right;  it  is  the  best  way,  after  all," 


514  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

said  Eccles,  hurriedly.  "You  say  you'll  look  after  the 
boy,  and  I  '11  start  by  the  ten  o'clock  train." 

"Yes,  I'll  take  the  boy,"  said  the  other;  "but  you'll 
have  to  look  sharp  and  lose  no  time.  They  will  be  seques- 
tering the  moment  they  hear  of  it,  and  I  half  suspect  old 
Engler  will  be  before  you." 

"  But  my  personal  effects?     I  have  things  of  value." 

"  Hush,  hush!  he'll  overhear  you.  Come,  young  gentle- 
man," said  he  to  me,  —  "  come  home  and  sup  with  me. 
The  hotel  is  so  full,  they  've  no  quarters  for  you.  I  '11  try 
if  I  can't  put  you  up." 

Eccles  stood  with  his  head  bent  down  as  we  moved  away, 
then  lifted  his  eyes,  waved  his  hand  a  couple  of  times,  and 
said,  "By-bye." 

"Isn't  he  coming  with  us?"   asked  I. 

"Not  just  yet:  he  has  some  business  to  detain  him,'* 
said  the  banker;   and  we  moved  on. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A   TERRIBLE    SHOCK. 

Herr  Heinfetter  was  a  bachelor,  and  lived  in  a  very  mod- 
est fashion  over  his  banking-house;  and  as  he  was  em- 
ployed from  morning  to  night,  I  saw  next  to  nothing  of 
him.  Eccles,  he  said,  had  been  called  away,  and  though  I 
eagerly  asked  where,  by  whom,  and  for  how  long,  I  got 
no  other  answer  than  "  He  is  called  away,'*  in  very  German 
English,  and  with  a  stolidity  of  look  fully  as  Teutonic. 

The  banker  was  not  talkative :  he  smoked  all  the  even- 
ing, and  drank  beer,  and  except  an  occasional  monosyllabic 
comment  on  its  excellence,  said  little. 

'' Ach,  ja!"  he  would  say,  looking  at  me  fixedly,  as 
though  assenting  to  some  not  exactly  satisfactory  conclusion 
his  mind  had  come  to  about  me,  — "  ach,  ja!"  And  I 
would  have  given  a  good  deal  at  the  time  to  know  to  what 
peculiar  feature  of  my  fortune  or  my  fate  this  half-compas- 
sionate exclamation  extended. 

''  Is  Eccles  never  coming  back?  "  cried  I,  one  day,  as  the 
post  came  in,  and  no  tidings  of  him  appeared ;  ''  is  he  never 
coming  at  all?" 

*' Never,  no  more." 

*'  Not  coming  back?  "  cried  I. 

**  No ;  not  come  back  no  more." 

*'  Then  what  am  I  staying  here  for?  Why  do  I  wait  for 
him?" 

"  Because  you  have  no  money  to  go  elsewhere,"  said  he ; 
and  for  once  he  gave  way  to  something  he  thought  was  a 
laugh. 

"  I  don't  understand  you,  Herr  Heinfetter,"  said  I;  "  our 
letter  of  credit,  Mr.  Eccles  told  me,  was  on  your  house  here. 
Is  it  exhausted,  and  must  I  wait  for  a  remittance  ?  " 

"  It  is  exhaust;  Mr.  Eccles  exhaust  it." 


516  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

*'  So  that  I  must  write  for  money ;  is  that  so?  " 

*'  You  may  write  and  write,  mien  lieber,  but  it  won't 
come." 

Herr  Heinfetter  drained  his  tall  glass,  and,  leaning  his 
arms  on  the  table,  said:  "I  will  tell  you  in  German,  you 
know  it  well  enough."  And  forthwith  he  began  a  story, 
which  lost  nothing  of  the  pain  and  misery  it  caused  me  by 
the  un sympathizing  tone  and  stolid  look  of  the  narrator. 
For  my  reader's  sake,  as  for  my  own,  I  will  ^condense  it  into 
the  fewest  words  I  can,  and  omit  all  that  Herr  Heinfetter 
inserted  either  as  comment  or  censure.  My  father  had 
eloped  with  Madame  Cleremont!  They  had  fled  to  Inn- 
spriick,  from  which  my  father  returned  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Belgium,  to  offer  Cleremont  a  meeting.  Cleremont,  how- 
ever, possessed  in  his  hands  a  reparation  he  liked  better,  — 
my  father's  check-book,  with  a  number  of  signed  but  unfilled 
checks.  These  he  at  once  filled  up  to  the  last  shilling  of 
his  credit,  and  drew  out  the  money,  so  that  my  father's  first 
draft  on  London  was  returned  dishonored.  The  villa  and 
all  its  splendid  contents  were  sequestrated,  and  an  action  for 
divorce,  with  ten  thousand  pounds  laid  as  damages,  already 
commenced.  Of  three  thousand  francs,  which  our  letter 
assured  us  at  Zurich,  Eccles  had  drawn  two  thousand :  he 
would  have  taken  all,  but  Heinfetter,  who  prudently  foresaw 
I  must  be  got  rid  of  some  day,  retained  one  thousand  to  pay 
my  way.  Eccles  had  gone,  promising  to  return  when  he  had 
saved  his  own  effects,  or  what  he  called  his  own,  from  the 
wreck ;  but  a  few  lines  had  come  from  him  to  say  the  smash 
was  complete,  the  "  huissiers"  in  possession,  seals  on  every- 
thing, and  "  not  even  the  horses  watered  without  a  gendarme 
present  in  full  uniform." 

''Tell  Digby,  if  we  travel  together  again,  he'll  not  have 
to  complain  of  my  puffing  him  off  for  a  man  of  fortune; 
and,  above  all,  advise  him  to  avoid  Brussels  in  his  journey- 
ings.  He  '11  find  his  father's  creditors,  I  'm  afraid,  far  more 
attached  to  him  than  Mademoiselle  Pauline." 

His  letter  wound  up  with  a  complaint  over  his  own 
blighted  prospects,  for,  of  course,  his  chance  of  the  presen- 
tation was  now  next  to  hopeless,  and  he  did  not  know  what 
line  of  life  he  might  be  driven  to. 


A  TERRIBLE  SHOCK.  617 

And  now,  shall  I  own  that,  ruined  and  deserted  as  I  was, 
overwhelmed  with  sorrow  and  shame,  there  was  no  part  of 
all  the  misery  I  felt  more  bitterly  than  the  fate  of  her  who 
had  been  so  kindly  affectionate  to  me,  —  who  had  nursed  me 
so  tenderly  in  sickness,  and  been  the  charming  companion 
of  my  happiest  hours  ?  At  first  it  seemed  incredible.  My 
father's  manner  to  her  had  ever  been  coldness  itself,  and  I 
could  only  lead  myself  to  believe  the  story  by  imagining  how 
the  continued  cruelty  of  Cleremont  had  actually  driven  the 
unhappy  woman  to  entreat  protection  against  his  barbarity. 
It  was  as  well  I  should  think  so,  and  it  served  to  soften  the 
grief  and  assuage  the  intensity  of  the  sorrow  the  event 
caused  me.  I  cried  over  it  two  entire  days  and  part  of  a 
third ;  and  so  engrossed  was  I  with  this  affliction  that  not  a 
thought  of  myself,  or  of  my  own  destitution,  ever  crossed 
me. 

•'Do  you  know  where  my  father  is?"  asked  I  of  the 
banker. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  dryly. 

"May  I  have  his  address?     I  wish  to  write  to  him." 

**  This  is  what  he  send  for  message,"  said  he,  producing 
a  telegram,  the  address  of  which  he  had  carefully  torn  off. 
"It  is  of  you  he  speak:  '  Do  what  you  like  with  him  ex- 
cept bother  me.  Let  him  have  whatever  money  is  in  your 
hands  to  my  credit,  and  let  him  understand  he  has  no  more 
to  expect  from  Roger  Norcott.' " 

"  May  I  keep  this  paper,  sir?  "  asked  I,  in  a  humble  tone. 

"I  see  no  reason  against  it.  Yes,"  muttered  he.  "As 
to  the  moneys,  Eccles  have  drawn  eighty  pound;  there  is 
forty  remain  to  you." 

I  sat  down  and  covered  my  face  with  my  hands.  It  was  a 
habit  with  me  when  I  wanted  to  apply  myself  fully  to 
thought;  but  Herr  Heinfetter  suspected  that  I  had  given 
way  to  grief,  and  began  to  cheer  me  up.  I  at  once  unde- 
ceived him,  and  said,  "No,  I  was  not  crying,  sir;  I  was 
only  thinking  what  I  had  best  do.  If  you  allow  me,  I  will 
go  up  to  my  room,  and  think  it  over  by  myself.  I  shall  be 
calmer,  even  if  I  hit  on  nothing  profitable." 

I  passed  twelve  hours  alone,  occasionally  dropping  off  to 
sleep  out  of  sheer  weariness,  for  my  brain  worked  hard. 


618  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

travelling  over  a  wide  space,  and  taking  in  every  contin- 
gency and  every  accident  I  could  think  of.  I  might  go  back 
and  seek  out  my  mother ;  but  to  what  end,  if  I  should  only 
become  a  dependant  on  her  ?  No ;  far  better  that  I  should 
try  and  obtain  some  means  of  earning  a  livelihood,  ever  so 
humble,  abroad,  than  spread  the  disgrace  of  my  family  at 
home.  Perhaps  Herr  Heinfetter  might  accept  my  services 
in  some  shape ;  I  could  be  anything  but  a  servant. 

When  I  told  him  I  wished  to  earn  my  bread,  he  looked 
doubtingly  at  me  in  silence,  shaking  his  head,  and  mutter- 
ing, ''Nein,  niemals,  nein,"  in  every  cadence  of  despair. 

''Could  you  not  try  me,  sir?"  pleaded  I,  earnestly;  but 
his  head  moved  sadly  in  refusal. 

"  I  will  think  of  it,"  he  said  at  last,  and  he  left  me. 

He  was  as  good  as  his  word ;  he  thought  of  it  for  two 
whole  days,  and  then  said  that  he  had  a  correspondent  on 
the  shore  of  the  Adriatic,  in  a  little-visited  town,  where  no 
news  of  my  father's  history  was  like  to  reach,  and  that  he 
would  write  to  him  to  take  me  into  his  counting-house  in 
some  capacity  :  a  clerk,  or  possibly  a  messenger,  till  I  should 
prove  myself  worthy  of  being  advanced  to  the  desk.  It 
would  be  hard  work,  however,  he  said ;  Herr  Oppovich  was 
a  Slavic,  and  they  were  people  who  gave  themselves  few 
indulgences,  and  their  dependants  still  fewer. 

He  went  on  to  tell  me  that  the  house  of  Hodnig  and 
Oppovich  had  been  a  wealthy  firm  formerly,  but  that  Hod- 
nig had  over-speculated,  and  died  of  a  broken  heart;  that 
now,  after  years  of  patient  toil  and  thrift,  Oppovich  had 
restored  the  credit  of  the  house,  and  was  in  good  repute  in 
the  world  of  trade.  Some  time  back  he  had  written  to 
Heinfetter  to  send  him  a  young  fellow  who  knew  languages 
and  was  willing  to  work. 

"  That 's  all,"  he  said ;  ''  shall  I  venture  to  tell  him  that  I 
recommend  you  for  these?" 

'*  Let  me  have  a  trial,"  said  I,  gravely. 

"  I  will  write  your  letter  to-night,  then,  and  you  shall  set 
out  to-morrow  for  Vienna ;  thence  you  '11  take  the  rail  to 
Trieste,  and  by  sea  you  '11  reach  Fiume,  where  Herr  Oppo- 
vich lives." 

I  thanked  him  heartily,  and  went  to  my  room. 


A  TERRIBLE  SHOCK.  519 

On  the  morning  that  followed  began  my  new  life.  I  was 
no  longer  to  be  the  pampered  and  spoiled  child  of  fortune, 
surrounded  with  every  appliance  of  luxury,  and  waited  on 
by  obsequious  servants.  I  was  now  to  travel  modestly,  to 
fare  humbly,  and  to  ponder  over  the  smallest  outlay,  lest  it 
should  limit  me  in  some  other  quarter  of  greater  need.  But 
of  all  the  changes  in  my  condition,  none  struck  me  so  pain- 
fully at  first  as  the  loss  of  consideration  from  strangers  that 
immediately  followed  my  fallen  state.  People  who  had  no 
concern  with  my  well-to-do  condition,  who  could  take  no 
possible  interest  in  my  prosperity,  had  been  courteous  to  me 
hitherto,  simply  because  I  was  prosperous,  and  were  now 
become  something  almost  the  reverse  for  no  other  reason, 
that  I  could  see,  than  that  I  was  poor. 

Where  before  I  had  met  willingness  to  make  my  acquaint- 
ance, and  an  almost  cordial  acceptance,  I  was  now  to  find 
distance  and  reserve.  Above  all,  I  discovered  that  there 
was  a  general  distrust  of  the  poor  man,  as  though  he  were 
one  more  especially  exposed  to  rash  influences,  and  more 
likely  to  yield  to  them. 

I  got  some  sharp  lessons  in  these  things  the  first  few  days 
of  my  journey,  but  I  dropped  down  at  last  into  the  third- 
class  train,  and  found  myself  at  ease.  My  fellow-travellers 
were  not  very  polished  or  very  cultivated,  but  in  one  respect 
their  good  breeding  had  the  superiority  over  that  of  finer 
folk.  They  never  questioned  my  right  to  be  saving,  nor 
seemed  to  think  the  worse  of  me  for  being  poor. 

Herr  Heinfetter  had  counselled  me  to  stay  a  few  days  at 
Vienna,  and  provide  myself  with  clothes  more  suitable  to 
my  new  condition  than  those  I  was  wearing. 

"If  old  Ignaz  Oppovich  saw  a  silk-lined  coat,  he  'd  soon 
send  you  about  your  business,"  said  he;  "and  as  to  that 
fine  watch-chain  and  its  gay  trinkets,  you  have  only  to 
appear  with  it  once  to  get  your  dismissal." 

It  was  not  easy,  with  my  little  experience  of  life,  to  see 
how  these  things  should  enter  into  an  estimate  of  me,  or 
why  Herr  Ignaz  should  concern  him  with  other  attributes  of 
mine  than  such  as  touched  my  clerkship ;  but  as  I  was  enter- 
ing on  a  world  where  all  was  new,  where  not  only  the 
people,  but  their  prejudices   and   their    likings,  were   all 


520  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

strange  to  me,  I  resolved  to  approach  them  in  an  honest 
spirit,  and  with  a  desire  to  conform  to  them  as  well  as  I 
was  able. 

Lest  the  name  Norcott  appearing  in  the  newspapers  in 
my  father's  case  should  connect  me  with  his  story,  Hein- 
fetter  advised  me  to  call  myself  after  my  mother's  family, 
which  sounded,  besides,  less  highly  born;  and  I  had  my 
passport  made  out  in  the  name  of  Digby  Owen. 

"Mind,  lad,"  said  the  banker,  as  he  parted  with  me,  "give 
yourself  no  airs  with  Ignaz  Oppovich ;  do  not  turn  up  your 
nose  at  his  homely  fare,  or  handle  his  coarse  napkin  as  if  it 
hurt  your  skin,  as  I  have  seen  you  do  here.  From  his  door 
to  destitution  there  is  only  a  step,  and  bethink  yourself 
twice  before  you  take  it.  I  have  done  all  I  mean  to  do  by 
you,  more  than  I  shall  ever  be  paid  for.  And  now,  good- 
bye." 

This  sort  of  language  grated  very  harshly  on  my  ears  at 
first ;  but  I  had  resolved  to  bear  my  lot  courageously,  and 
conform,  where  I  could,  to  the  tone  of  those  I  had  come 
down  to. 

I  thanked  him,  then,  respectfully  and  calmly,  for  his  hos- 
pitality to  me,  and  went  my  way. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

FIUME. 

''I  SAW  a  young  fellow,  so  like  that  boy  of  Norcott's  in  a 
third-class  carriage,"  I  overheard  a  traveller  say  to  his  com- 
panion, as  we  stopped  to  sup  at  Gratz. 

''He  '11  have  scarcely  come  to  that,  I  fancy,"  said  the 
other,  "though  Norcott  must  have  run  through  nearly  every- 
thing by  this  time." 

It  was  about  the  last  time  J  was  to  hear  myself  called  in 
this  fashion.  They  who  were  to  know  me  thenceforward 
were  to  know  me  by  another  name,  and  in  a  rank  that  had 
no  traditions;  and  I  own  I  accepted  this  humble  fortune 
with  a  more  contented  spirit  and  with  less  chagrin  than  it 
cost  me  to  hear  myself  spoken  of  in  this  half-contemptuous 
fashion. 

I  was  now  very  plainly,  simply  dressed.  I  made  no  dis- 
play of  studs  or  watch-chain;  I  even  gave  up  the  ring 
I  used  to  wear,  and  took  care  that  my  gloves  —  in  which  I 
once  was  almost  puppyish  —  should  be  the  commonest  and 
the  cheapest. 

If  there  was  something  that  at  moments  fell  very  heavily 
on  my  heart  in  the  utter  destitution  of  my  lot,  there  was,  on 
the  other  hand,  what  nerved  my  heart  and  stimulated  me  in 
the  thought  that  there  was  some  heroism  in  what  I  was 
doing.  I  was,  so  to  say,  about  to  seek  my  fortune;  and 
what  to  a  young  mind  could  be  more  full  of  interest  and 
anticipation  than  such  a  thought?  To  be  entirely  self- 
dependent;  to  be  thrown  into  situations  of  difficulty,  with 
nothing  but  one's  own  resources  to  rely  on;  to  be  obliged 
to  trust  to  one's  head  for  counsel,  and  one's  heart  for  cour- 
age; to  see  oneself,  as  it  were,  alone  against  the  world, —  is 
intensely  exciting. 


522  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

In  the  days  of  romance  there  were  personal  perils  to  con- 
front, and  appalling  dangers  to  be  surmounted ;  but  now  it 
was  a  game  of  life,  to  be  played,  not  merely  with  a  stout 
heart  and  a  ready  hand,  but  with  a  cool  head  and  a  steady 
eye.  Young  as  I  was,  I  had  seen  a  great  deal.  In  that 
strange  comedy  of  which  my  father's  guests  were  the  per- 
formers, there  was  great  insight  into  character  to  be 
gained,  and  a  marvellous  knowledge  of  that  skill  by  which 
they  who  live  by  their  wits  cultivate  these  same  wits  to 
live. 

If  I  was  not  totally  corrupted  by  the  habits  and  ways  of 
that  life,  I  owe  it  wholly  to  those  teachings  of  my  dear 
mother  which,  through  all  the  turmoil  and  confusion  of  this 
ill-regulated  existence,  still  held  a  place  in  my  heart,  and 
led  me  again  and  again  to  ask  myself  how  she  would  think 
of  this,  or  what  judgment  she  would  pass  on  that ;  and  even 
in  this  remnant  of  a  conscience  there  was  some  safety.  I 
tried  to  persuade  myself  that  it  was  well  for  me  that  all  this 
was  now  over,  and  that  an  honest  existence  was  now  about 
to  open  to  me,  —  an  existence  in  which  my  good  mother's 
lessons  would  avail  me  more,  stimulate  me  to  the  right  and 
save  me  from  the  wrong,  and  give  to  the  humblest  cares  of 
daily  labor  a  halo  that  had  never  shone  on  my  life  of 
splendor. 

It  was  late  at  night  when  I  reached  Trieste,  and  I  left  it 
at  daybreak.  The  small  steamer  in  which  I  had  taken  my 
passage  followed  the  coast  line,  calling  at  even  the  most 
insignificant  little  towns  and  villages,  and  winding  its  track 
through  that  myriad  of  islands  which  lie  scattered  along 
this  strange  shore.  The  quiet,  old-world  look  of  these  quaint 
towns,  the  simple  articles  they  dealt  in,  the  strange  dress, 
and  the  stranger  sounds  of  the  language  of  these  people,  all 
told  me  into  what  a  new  life  I  had  just  set  foot,  and  how 
essential  it  was  to  leave  all  my  former  habits  behind  me  as 
I  entered  here. 

The  sun  had  just  gone  below  the  sea,  as  we  rounded  the 
great  promontory  of  the  north  and  entered  the  bay  of  Fiume. 
Scarcely  had  we  passed  in  than  the  channel  seemed  to  close 
behind  us,  and  we  were  moving  along  over  what  looked  like 
a  magnificent  lake  bounded  on  every  side  by  lofty  moun- 


FIUME.  523 

tains,  —  for  the  islands  of  the  bay  are  so  placed  that  they 
conceal  the  openings  to  the  Adriatic.  If  the  base  of  the 
great  mountains  was  steeped  in  a  blue,  deep  and  mellow  as 
the  sea  itself,  their  summits  glowed  in  the  carbuncle  tints 
of  the  setting  sun,  and  over  these  again  long  lines  of  cloud, 
golden  and  azure  streaks  marked  the  sky,  almost  on  fire,  as 
it  were,  with  the  last  parting  salute  of  the  glorious  orb  that 
was  setting.  It  was  not  merely  that  I  had  never  seen,  but 
I  could  not  have  imagined  such  beauty  of  landscape,  and  as 
we  swept  quietly  along  nearer  the  shore,  and  I  could  mark 
the  villas  shrouded  in  the  deep  woods  of  chestnut  and  oak, 
and  saw  the  olive  and  the  cactus,  with  the  orange  and  the 
oleander,  bending  their  leafy  branches  over  the  blue  water, 
I  thought  to  myself,  would  not  a  life  there  be  nearer  Para- 
dise than  anything  wealth  and  fortune  could  buy  elsewhere? 

"There,  yonder,"  said  the  captain,  pointing  to  the  orna- 
mented chimneys  of  a  house  surrounded  by  a  deep  oak- 
wood,  and  the  terrace  of  which  overhung  the  sea,  'Hhat  's  the 
villa  of  old  Ignaz  Oppovich.  They  say  the  Emperor 
tempted  him  with  half  a  million  of  florins  to  sell  it,  but, 
miser  as  he  was  and  is,  the  old  fellow  refused  it." 

''Is  that  Oppovich  of  the  firm  of  Hodnig  and  Oppovich?  " 
asked  I. 

"Yes;  the  house  is  all  Oppovich' s  now,  and  half  Fiume 
too,  I  believe." 

"There  are  worse  fellows  than  old  Ignaz,"  said  another, 
gravely.  "I  wonder  what  would  become  of  the  hospital, 
or  the  poor-house,  or  the  asylum  for  the  orphans  here,  but 
for  him." 

"He 's  a  Jew,"  said  another,  spitting  out  with  contempt. 

"A  Jew  that  could  teach  many  a  Christian  the  virtues  of 
his  own  faith,"  cried  the  former.  "A  Jew  that  never  re- 
fused an  alms  to  the  poor,  no  matter  of  what  belief,  and 
that  never  spoke  ill  of  his  neighbor." 

"I  never  heard  as  much  good  of  him  before,  and  I  have 
been  a  member  of  the  town  council  with  him  these  thirty 
years." 

The  other  touched  his  hat  respectfully  in  recognition  of 
the  speaker's  rank,  and  said  no  more. 

I  took  my  little  portmanteau  in  my  hand  as  we  landed, 


524  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

and  made  for  a  small  hotel  which  faced  the  sea.  I  had 
determined  not  to  present  myself  to  the  Herr  Oppovich  till 
morning,  and  to  take  that  evening  to  see  the  town  and  its 
neighborhood. 

As  I  strolled  about,  gazing  with  a  stranger's  curiosity  at 
all  that  was  new  and  odd  to  me  in  this  quiet  spot,  I  felt 
coming  over  me  that  deep  depression  which  almost  invari- 
ably falls  upon  him  who,  alone  and  friendless,  makes  first 
acquaintance  with  the  scene  wherein  he  is  to  live.  How 
hard  it  is  for  him  to  believe  that  the  objects  he  sees  can  ever 
become  of  interest  to  him ;  how  impossible  it  seems  that  he 
will  live  to  look  on  this  as  home ;  that  he  will  walk  that 
narrow  street  as  a  familiar  spot;  giving  back  the  kindly 
greetings  that  he  gets,  and  feeling  that  strange,  mysterious 
sense  of  brotherhood  that  grows  out  of  daily  intercourse 
with  the  same  people ! 

I  was  curious  to  see  where  the  Herr  Oppovich  lived,  and 
found  the  place  after  some  search.  The  public  garden  of 
the  town,  a  prettily  planted  spot,  lies  between  two  moun- 
tain streams,  flanked  by  tall  mountains,  and  is  rather 
shunned  by  the  inhabitants  from  its  suspicion  of  damp. 
Through  this  deserted  spot  —  for  I  saw  not  one  being  as  I 
went  —  1  passed  on  to  a  dark  copse  at  the  extreme  end,  and 
beyond  which  a  small  wooden  bridge  led  over  to  a  garden 
wildly  overgrown  with  evergreens  and  shrubs,  and  so  neg- 
lected that  it  was  not  easy  at  first  to  select  the  right  path 
amongst  the  many  that  led  through  the  tangled  brushwood. 
Following  one  of  these,  I  came  out  on  a  little  lawn  in  front 
of  a  long  low  house  of  two  stories.  The  roof  was  high- 
pitched,  and  the  windows  narrow  and  defended  by  strong  iron 
shutters,  which  lay  open  on  the  outside  wall,  displaying  many 
a  bolt  and  bar,  indicative  of  strength  and  resistance.  No 
smoke  issued  from  a  chimney,  not  a  sound  broke  the  still- 
ness, nor  was  there  a  trace  of  any  living  thing  around,  — 
desolation  like  it  I  had  never  seen.  At  last,  a  mean,  half- 
stai-ved  dog  crept  coweringly  across  the  lawn,  and,  drawing 
nigh  the  door,  stood  and  whined  plaintively.  After  a  brief 
pause  the  door  opened,  the  animal  stole  in ;  the  door  then 
closed  with  a  bang,  and  all  was  still  as  before.  I  turned 
back  towards  the  town  with  a  heavy  heart;  a  gloomy  dread 


FIUME.  525 

of  those  I  was  to  be  associated  with  on  the  morrow  was  over 
me,  and  I  went  to  the  inn  and  locked  myself  into  my  room, 
and  fell  upon  my  bed  with  a  sense  of  desolation  that  found 
vent  at  last  in  a  torrent  of  tears. 

As  I  look  back  on  the  night  that  followed,  it  seems  to  me 
one  of  the  saddest  passages  of  my  life.  If  I  fell  asleep,  it 
was  to  dream  of  the  past,  with  all  its  exciting  pleasures 
and  delights,  and  then,  awaking  suddenly,  I  found  myself 
in  this  wretched,  poverty-stricken  room,  where  every  object 
spoke  of  misery,  and  recalled  me  to  the  thought  of  a  condi- 
tion as  ignoble  and  as  lowly. 

I  remember  well  how  I  longed  for  day-dawn,  that  I  might 
get  up  and  wander  along  the  shore,  and  taste  the  fresh 
breeze,  and  hear  the  plash  of  the  sea,  and  seek  in  that 
greater,  wider,  and  more  beautiful  world  of  nature  a  peace 
that  my  own  despairing  thoughts  would  not  suffer  me  to 
enjoy.  And,  at  the  first  gleam  of  light,  I  did  steal  down, 
and  issue  forth,  to  walk  for  hours  along  the  bay  in  a  sort  of 
enchantment  from  the  beauty  of  the  scene,  that  filled  me 
at  last  with  a  sense  of  almost  happiness.  I  thought  of 
Pauline,  too,  and  wondered  would  she  partake  of  the  delight 
this  lovely  spot  imparted  to  me  ?  Would  she  see  these  leafy 
woods,  that  bold  mountain,  that  crystal  sea,  with  its  glitter- 
ing sands  many  a  fathom  deep,  as  I  saw  them  ?  And  if  so, 
what  a  stimulus  to  labor  and  grow  rich  was  in  the  thought. 

In  pleasant  reveries,  that  dashed  the  future  with  much 
that  had  delighted  me  in  the  past,  the*  hours  rolled  on  till  it 
was  time  to  present  myself  at  Herr  Oppovich's.  Armed 
with  my  letter  of  introduction,  I  soon  found  myself  at  the 
door  of  a  large  warehouse,  over  which  his  name  stood  in  big 
letters.  A  narrow  wooden  stair  ascended  steeply  from  the 
entrance  to  a  long  low  room,  in  which  fully  twenty  clerks 
were  busily  engaged  at  their  desks.  At  the  end  of  this,  in 
a  smaller  room,  I  was  told  Herr  Ignaz  —  for  he  was  always 
so  called  —  held  his  private  office. 

Before  I  was  well  conscious  of  it,  I  was  standing  in  this 
room  before  a  short,  thick- set  old  man,  with  heavy  eyebrows 
and  beard,  and  whose  long  coat  of  coarse  cloth  reached 
to  his  feet. 

He  sat  and  examined  me  as  he  read  the  note,  pausing  at 


526  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

times  in  the  reading  as  if  to  compare  me  with  the  indica^ 
tions  before  him. 

'*Digby  Owen,  —  is  that  the  name? "  asked  he. 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Native  of  Ireland,  and  never  before  employed  in  com- 
mercial pursuits  ?  " 

I  nodded  to  this  interrogatory. 

"I  am  not  in  love  with  Ireland,  nor  do  I  feel  a  great  lik- 
ing for  ignorance,  Herr  Owen,"  said  he,  slowly;  and  there 
was  a  deep  impressiveness  in  his  tone,  though  the  words 
came  with  the  thick  accentuation  of  the  Jew.  "My  old 
friend  and  correspondent  should  have  remembered  these 
prejudices  of  mine.  Herr  Jacob  Heinfetter  should  not  have 
sent  you  here." 

I  knew  not  what  reply  to  make  to  this,  and  was  silent. 

"He  should  not  have  sent  you  here;"  and  he  repeated 
the  words  with  increased  solemnity.  "What  do  you  want 
me  to  do  with  you?"  said  he,  sharply,  after  a  brief  pause. 

"Anything  that  will  serve  to  let  me  earn  my  bread,"  said 
I,  calmly. 

"But  I  can  get  scores  like  you,  young  man,  for  the  wages 
we  give  servants  here;  and  would  you  be  content  with 
that?" 

"I  must  take  what  you  are  pleased  to  give  me." 

He  rang  a  little  bell  beside  him,  and  cried  out,  "Send 
Harasch  here."  And,  at  the  word,  a  short,  beetle-browed, 
ill-favored  young  fellow  appeared  at  the  door,  pen  in  hand. 

"Bring  me  your  ledger,"  said  the  old  man.  "Look  here 
now,"  said  he  to  me,  as  he  turned  over  the  beautifully  clean 
and  neatly  kept  volume:  "this  is  the  work  of  one  who 
earns  six  hundred  florins  a  year.  You  began  with  four, 
Harasch?" 

"Three  hundred,  Herr  Ignaz,"  said  the  lad,  bowing. 

"Can  you  live  and  wear  such  clothes  as  these,"  said  the 
old  man,  touching  my  tweed  coat,  "  for  three  hundred  florins 
a  year,  —  paper  florins,  mind,  which  in  your  money  would 
make  about  twenty-five  pounds  ?  " 

"I  will  do  my  best  with  it,"  said  I,  determined  he  should 
not  deter  me  by  mere  words. 

"Take   him  with   you,  Harasch;  let  him  copy  into  the 


EIUME.  627 

waste- book.  We  shall  see  in  a  few  days  what  he 's  fit 
for." 

At  a  sign  from  the  youth  I  followed  him  out,  and  soon 
found  myself  in  the  outer  room,  where  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  the  younger  clerks  were  waiting  to  acknowledge  me. 

Nothing  could  well  be  less  like  the  manners  and  habits  I 
was  used  to  than  the  coarse  familiarity  and  easy  imperti- 
nence of  these  young  fellows.  They  questioned  me  about 
my  birth,  my  education,  my  means,  what  circumstance  had 
driven  me  to  my  present  step,  and  why  none  of  my  friends 
had  done  anything  to  save  me  from  it.  Not  content  with 
a  number  of  very  searching  inquiries,  they  began  to  assure 
me  that  Herr  Ignaz  would  not  put  up  with  my  incapacity  for 
a  week.  "He'll  send  you  into  the  yard,"  cried  one;  and 
the  sentence  was  chorused  at  once.  "Ja!  ja!  he'll  be 
sent  into  the  yard."  And  though  I  was  dying  to  know  what 
that  might  mean,  my  pride  restrained  my  curiosity,  and  I 
would  not  condescend  to  ask. 

"Won't  he  be  fine  in  the  yard!  "  I  heard  one  whisper  to 
another,  and  they  both  began  laughing  at  the  conceit ;  and 
I  now  sat  down  on  a  bench  and  lost  myself  in  thought. 

"Come;  we  are  going  to  dinner,  Englander,"  said  Harasch 
to  me  at  last ;  and  I  arose  and  followed  him. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

HANSERL    OF    THE   YARD. 

I  WAS  soon  to  learn  what  being  "sent  into  the  yard  "  meant. 
Within  a  week  that  destiny  was  mine.  Being  so  sent  was 
the  phrase  for  being  charged  to  count  the  staves  as  they 
arrived  in  wagon-loads  from  Hungary,  —  oaken  staves 
being  the  chief  ''industry"  of  Fiume,  and  the  principal 
source  of  Herr  Oppovich's  fortune. 

My  companion,  and,  indeed,  my  instructor  in  this  intellec- 
tual employment,  was  a  strange-looking,  dwarfish  creature, 
who,  whatever  the  season,  wore  a  suit  of  dark  yellow  leather, 
the  jerkin  being  fastened  round  the  waist  by  a  broad  belt 
with  a  heavy  brass  buckle.  He  had  been  in  the  yard  three- 
und-forty  years,  and  though  his  assistants  had  been  uni- 
formly promoted  to  the  office,  he  had  met  no  advancement 
in  life,  but  was  still  in  the  same  walk  and  the  same  grade 
in  which  he  had  started. 

Hans  Sponer  was,  however,  a  philosopher,  and  went  on 
his  road  uncomplainingly.  He  said  that  the  open  air  and 
the  freedom  were  better  than  the  closeness  and  confinement 
within- doors,  and  if  his  pay  was  smaller,  his  healthier  appe- 
tite made  him  able  to  relish  plainer  food ;  and  this  mode  of 
reconciling  things  —  striking  the  balance  between  good  and 
ill  —  went  through  all  he  said  or  did,  and  his  favorite 
phrase,  "Es  ist  fast  einerley,"  or  "It  comes  to  about  the 
-same,"  comprised  his  whole  system  of  worldly  knowledge. 

If  at  first  I  felt  the  occupation  assigned  to  me  as  an  insult 
and  a  degradation,  Hanserl's  companionship  soon  reconciled 
me  to  submit  to  it  with  patience.  It  was  not  merely  that 
he  displayed  an  invariable  good-humor  and  pleasantry,  but 
there  was  a  forbearance  about  him,  and  a  delicacy  in  his 
•dealing  with  me,  actually  gentlemanlike.     Thus,  he  never 


HANSERL  OF  THE  YARD.  529 

questioned  me  as  to  my  former  condition,  nor  asked  by 
what  accident  I  had  fallen  to  my  present  lot;  and,  while 
showing  in  many  ways  that  he  saw  I  was  unused  to  hard- 
ship, he  rather  treated  my  inexperience  as  a  mere  fortuitous 
circumstance  than  as  a  thing  to  comment  or  dwell  on.  Han- 
serl,  besides  this,  taught  me  how  to  live  on  my  humble  pay 
of  a  florin  and  ten  kreutzers  —  about  two  shillings  —  daily. 
I  had  a  small  room  that  led  out  into  the  yard,  and  could 
consequently  devote  my  modest  salary  to  my  maintenance. 
The  straitened  economy  of  Hans  himself  had  enabled  him 
to  lay  by  about  eight  hundred  florins,  and  he  strongly 
advised  me  to  arrange  my  mode  of  life  on  a  plan  that  would 
admit  of  such  a  prudent  saving. 

Less  for  this  purpose  than  to  give  my  friend  a  strong 
proof  of  the  full  confidence  I  reposed  in  his  judgment  and 
his  honor,  I  confided  to  his  care  all  my  earnings,  and  only 
begged  he  would  provide  for  me  as  for  himself;  and  thus 
Hans  and  I  became  inseparable.  We  took  our  coffee 
together  at  daybreak,  our  little  soup  and  boiled  beef  at 
noon,  and  our  potato-salad,  with  perhaps  a  sardine  or  such 
like,  at  night  for  supper;  the  "Viertelwein  "  —  the  fourth  of 
a  bottle  —  being  equitably  divided  between  us  to  cheer  our 
hearts  and  cement  good-fellowship  on  certainly  as  acrid  a 
liquor  as  ever  served  two  such  excellent  ends. 

None  of  the  clerks  would  condescend  to  know  us.  Herr 
Fripper,  the  cashier,  would  nod  to  us  in  the  street,  but  the 
younger  men  never  recognized  us  at  all,  save  in  some  expan- 
sive moment  of  freedom  by  a  wink  or  a  jerk  of  the  head. 
We  were  in  a  most  subordinate  condition,  and  they  made 
us  feel  it. 

From  Hans  I  learned  that  Herr  Oppovich  was  a  widower 
with  two  children,  a  son  and  a  daughter.  The  former  was 
an  irreclaimable  scamp  and  vagabond,  whose  debts  had 
been  paid  over  and  over  again,  and  who  had  been  turned  out 
of  the  army  with  disgrace,  and  was  now  wandering  about 
Europe,  living  on  his  father's  friends,  and  trading  for  small 
loans  on  his  family  name.  This  was  Adolph  Oppovich. 
The  girl  —  Sara  she  was  called  —  was,  in  Hanserl's  judg- 
ment, not  much  more  to  be  liked  than  her  brother.  She  was 
proud   and   insolent  to   a   degree   that  would    have    been 

8tfc 


630  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTTS. 

remarkable  in  a  princess  of  a  reigning  house.  From  the 
clerks  she  exacted  a  homage  that  was  positively  absurd.  It 
was  not  alone  that  they  should  always  stand  uncovered  a& 
she  passed,  but  that  if  any  had  occasion  to  address  her  he 
should  prelude  what  he  had  to  say  by  kissing  her  hand,  an 
act  of  vassalage  that  in  Austria  is  limited  to  persons  of  the 
humblest  kind. 

*'She  regards  me  as  a  wild  beast,  and  I  am  therefore 
spared  this  piece  of  servitude,"  said  Hans;  and  he  laughed 
his  noiseless  uncouth  laugh  as  he  thought  of  his  immunity. 

''Is  she  handsome?"  asked  I. 

"How  can  she  be  handsome  when  she  is  so  overbearing? '' 
said  he.  "Is  not  beauty  gentleness,  mildness,  softness? 
How  can  it  agree  with  eyes  that  flash  disdain,  and  a  mouth 
that  seems  to  curl  with  insolence?  The  old  proverb  says, 
'  Schonheit  ist  Sanftheit;'  and  that's  why  Our  Lady  is 
always  so  lovely." 

Hanserl  was  a  devout  Catholic;  and  not  impossibly  this 
sentiment  made  his  judgment  of  the  young  Jewess  all  the 
more  severe.  Of  Herr  Oppovich  himself  he  would  say 
little.  Perhaps  he  deemed  it  was  not  loyal  to  discuss  him 
whose  bread  he  ate ;  perhaps  he  had  not  sufficient  experience 
of  me  to  trust  me  with  his  opinion ;  at  all  events,  he  went 
no  further  than  an  admission  that  he  was  wise  and  keen  in 
business,  — ^  one  who  made  few  mistakes  himself,  nor  for- 
gave them  easily  in  another. 

"Never  do  more  than  he  tells  you  to  do,  younker,"  said 
Hans  to  me  one  day ;  *'  and  he  '11  trust  you,  if  you  do  that 
well."    And  this  was  not  the  least  valuable  hint  he  gave  me. 

Hans  had  a  great  deal  of  small  worldly  wisdom,  the  fruit 
rather  of  a  long  experience  than  of  any  remarkable  gift  of 
observation.  As  he  said  himself,  it  took  him  four  years  to 
learn  the  business  of  the  yard ;  and  as  I  acquired  the  knowl- 
edge in  about  a  week,  he  regarded  me  as  a  perfect  genius. 

We  soon  became  fast  and  firm  friends.  The  way  in 
which  I  had  surrendered  myself  to  his  guidance  —  giving 
him  up  the  management  of  my  money,  and  actually  sub- 
mitting to  his  authority  as  though  I  were  his  son  —  had 
won  upon  the  old  man  immensely ;  while  I,  on  my  side,  — 
friendless   and   companionless,    save   with   himself,  —  drew 


HANSERL  OF  THE  YARD.  631 

close  to  the  only  one  who  seemed  to  take  an  interest  in 
me.  At  first,  —  I  must  own  it,  —  as  we  wended  our  way 
at  noon  towards  the  little  eating-house  where  we  dined, 
and  I  saw  the  friends  with  whom  Hans  exchanged  greet- 
ings, and  felt  the  class  and  condition  he  belonged  to  re- 
flected in  the  coarse  looks  and  coarser  ways  of  his  associates, 
I  was  ashamed  to  think  to  what  I  had  fallen.  I  had,  indeed, 
no  respect  nor  any  liking  for  the  young  fellows  of  the  count- 
ing-house. They  were  intensely,  offensively  vulgar;  but 
they  had  the  outward  semblance,  the  dress,  and  the  gait 
of  their  betters,  and  they  were  privileged  by  appearance  to 
stroll  into  a  cafe  and  sit  down,  from  which  1  and  my  com- 
panion would  speedily  have  been  ejected.  I  confess  I 
envied  them  that  mere  right  of  admission  into  the  well- 
dressed  world,  and  sorrowed  over  my  own  exclusion  as 
though  it  had  been  inflicted  on  me  as  a  punishment. 

This  jealous  feeling  met  no  encouragement  from  Hans. 
The  old  man  had  no  rancour  of  any  kind  in  his  nature. 
He  had  no  sense  of  discontent  with  his  condition,  nor  any 
desire  to  change  it.  Counting  staves  seemed  to  him  a  very 
fitting  way  to  occupy  existence ;  and  he  knew  of  many 
occupations  that  were  less  pleasant  and  less  wholesome. 
Rags,  for  instance,  for  the  paper-mill,  or  hides,  in  both  of 
which  Herr  Ignaz  dealt,  Hans  would  have  seriously  dis- 
liked ;  but  staves  were  cleanly,  and  smelt  fresh  and  sweetly 
of  the  oak-wood  they  came  from ;  and  there  was  something 
noble  in  their  destiny  —  to  form  casks  and  hogsheads  for  the 
rich  wines  of  France  and  Spain  —  which  he  was  fond  of 
recalling;  and  so  would  he  say,  "Without  you  and  me, 
boy,  or  those  like  us,  they'd  have  no  vats  nor  barrels  foi 
the  red  grape- juice." 

While  he  thus  talked  to  me,  trying  to  invest  our  humble 
calling  with  what  might  elevate  it  in  my  eyes,  I  struggled 
often  with  myself  whether  I  should  not  tell  him  the  story 
of  my  life,  —  in  what  rank  I  had  lived,  to  what  hopes  of 
fortune  I  had  been  reared.  Would  this  knowledge  have 
raised  me  in  the  old  man's  esteem,  or  would  it  have  estranged 
him  from  me?  that  was  the  question.  How  should  I  come 
through  the  ordeal  of  his  judgment, —  higher  or  lower  ?  A 
mere  chance  decided  for  me  what  all  my  pondering  could 


532  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

not  resolve.  Hans  came  home  one  night  with  a  little  book 
in  his  hand,  a  present  for  me.  It  was  a  French  grammar, 
and,  as  he  told  me,  the  key  to  all  knowledge. 

*'  The  French  are  the  great  people  of  the  world,"  said  he, 
"and  till  you  know  their  tongue,  you  can  have  no  real  in- 
sight into  learning."  There  was  a  ''younker,"  once  under 
him  in  the  yard,  who,  just  because  he  could  read  and  write 
French,  was  now  a  cashier,  with  six  hundred  florins'  salary. 
*'  When  you  have  worked  hard  for  three  months,  we  '11  look 
out  for  a  master,  Owen." 

''  But  I  know  it  already,  Hanserl,"  said  I,  proudly.  ''  I 
speak  it  even  better  than  I  speak  German,  and  Italian  too ! 
Ay,  stare  at  me,  but  it's  true.  I  had  masters  for  these, 
and  for  Greek  and  Latin ;  and  I  was  taught  to  draw,  and  to 
sing,  and  to  play  the  piano,  and  I  learned  how  to  ride  and 
to  dance." 

*' Just  like  a  born  gentleman,"  broke  in  Hans. 

"I  was,  and  I  am,  a  born  gentleman;  don't  shake  your 
head,  or  wring  your  hands,  Hanserl.  I  'm  not  going  mad ! 
These  are  not  ravings !  I  '11  soon  convince  you  what  I  say 
is  true."  And  I  hurried  to  my  room,  and,  opening  my 
trunk,  took  out  my  watch  and  some  trinkets,  some  studs  of 
value,  and  a  costly  chain  my  father  gave  me.  "These  are 
all  mine !  I  used  to  wear  them  once,  as  coftimonly  as  I  now 
wear  these  bone  buttons.  There  were  more  servants  in  my 
father's  house  than  there  are  clerks  in  Herr  Oppovich's 
counting-house.  Let  me  tell  you  who  I  was,  and  how  I 
came  to  be  what  I  am." 

I  told  him  my  whole  story,  the  old  man  listening  with 
an  eagerness  quite  intense,  but  never  more  deeply  interested 
than  when  I  told  of  the  splendors  and  magnificence  of  my 
father's  house.  He  never  wearied  hearing  of  costly  entertain- 
ments and  great  banquets,  where  troops  of  servants  waited, 
and  every  wish  of  the  guests  was  at  once  ministered  to. 

"And  all  this,"  cried  he,  at  last,  "all  this,  day  after 
day,  night  after  night,  and  not  once  a  year  only,  as  we 
see  it  here,  on  the  Fraulein  Sara's  birthday !  "  And  now 
the  poor  old  man,  as  if  to  compensate  himself  for  listening 
so  long,  broke  out  into  a  description  of  the  festivities  by 
which  Herr  Oppovich  celebrated    his   daughter's  birthday : 


HANSERL  OF  THE  YARD.  633 

an  occasion  on  which  he  invited  all  in  his  employment  to 
pass  the  day  at  his  villa,  on  the  side  of  the  bay,  and  when, 
by  Hanserl's  account,  a  most  unbounded  hospitality  held 
sway.  ''  There  are  no  portions,  no  measured  quantities, 
but  each  is  free  to  eat  and  drink  as  he  likes,"  cried  Hans, 
who,  with  this  praise,  described  a  banquet  of  millennial 
magnificence.  "But  you  will  see  for  yourself,"  added  he; 
"for  even  the  'yard'  is  invited." 

I  cautioned  him  strictly  not  to  divulge  what  I  had  told 
him  of  myself ;  nor  was  it  necessary,  after  all,  for  he  well 
knew  how  Herr  Ignaz  resented  the  thought  of  any  one  in 
his  service  having  other  pretensions  than  such  as  grew  out 
of  his  own  favor  towards  them. 

"You'd  be  sent  away  to-morrow,  younker,"  said  he, 
"if  he  but  knew  what  you  were.  There's  an  old  proverb 
shows  how  they  think  of  people  of  quality :  — 

'  Die  Juden  nicht  dulden 
Den  Herrschaft  mit  Schulden.* 

The  Jews  cannot  abide  the  great  folk,  with  their  indebted- 
ness ;  and  to  deem  these  inseparable  is  a  creed. 

"  On  the  31st  of  August  falls  the  Fraulein's  birthday, 
lad,  and  you  shall  tell  me  the  next  morning  if  your  father 
gave  a  grander  fite,  than  that." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    SAIL   ACROSS   THE   BAY. 

The  31st  of  August  dawned  at  last,  and  with  the  promise 
of  a  lovely  autumnal  day.  It  was  the  one  holiday  of  the 
year  at  Herr  Oppovich's :  for  Sunday  was  only  externally 
observed  in  deference  to  the  feelings  of  the  Christian 
world,  and  clerks  sat  at  their  desks  inside,  and  within  the 
barred  shutters  the  whole  work  of  life  went  on  as  though 
a  week-day.  As  for  us  in  the  yard,  it  was  our  day  of 
most  rigorous  discipline ;  for  Ignaz  himself  was  wont  to 
come  down  on  a  tour  of  inspection,  and  his  quick  glances 
were  sure  to  detect  at  once  the  slightest  irregularity  or 
neglect.  He  seldom  noticed  me  on  these  occasions.  A 
word  addressed  to  Hanserl  as  to  how  the  ''younker"  was 
doing,  would  be  all  the  recognition  vouchsafed  me,  or,  at 
most,  a  short  nod  of  the  head  would  convey  that  he  had 
seen  me.  Hanserl's  reports  were,  however,  always  favor- 
able ;  and  I  had  so  far  good  reason  to  believe  that  my  master 
was  content  with  me. 

From  Hans,  who  had  talked  of  nothing  but  this  fete 
for  three  or  four  weeks,  I  had  learned  that  a  beautiful 
villa  which  Herr  Ignaz  owned  on  the  west  side  of  the  bay 
was  always  opened.  It  was  considered  much  too  grand 
a  place  to  live  in,  being  of  princely  proportions  and  splen- 
didly furnished ;  indeed,  it  had  come  into  Herr  Oppovich's 
possession  on  a  mortgage,  and  the  thought  of  using  it 
as  a  residence  never  occurred  to  him.  To  have  kept  the 
grounds  alone  in  order  would  have  cost  a  moderate  fortune ; 
and  as  there  was  no  natural  supply  of  water  on  the  spot, 
a  steam-pump  was  kept  in  constant  use  to  direct  streams  in 
different  directions.  This,  which  its  former  owner  freely 
paid  for,   was  an  outlay  that  Herr   Oppovich  regarded   as 


THE  SAIL  ACROSS  THE  BAY.  635 

most  wasteful,  and  reduced  at  once  to  the  very  narrowest 
limits  consistent  with  the  life  of  the  plants  and  shrubs 
around.  The  ornamental  fountains  were,  of  course,  left 
unfed ;  jets-d'eau  ceased  to  play ;  and  the  various  tanks  in 
which  water-nymphs  of  white  marble  disported,  were  dried 
up;  ivy  and  the  wild  vine  draping  the  statues,  and  hiding 
the  sculptured  urns  in  leafy  embrace. 

Of  the  rare  plants  and  flowers,  hundreds,  of  course,  died; 
indeed,  none  but  those  of  hardy  nature  could  survive  this 
stinted  aliment.  Greenhouses  and  conservatories,  too,  fell 
into  disrepair  and  neglect;  but  such  was  the  marvellous 
wealth  of  vegetation  that,  fast  as  walls  would  crumble  and 
architraves  give  way,  foliage  and  blossom  would  spread 
over  the  ruin,  and  the  rare  plants  within,  mingling  with  the 
stronger  vegetation  without,  would  form  a  tangled  mass  of 
leafy  beauty  of  surpassing  loveliness ;  and  thus  the  rarest 
orchids  were  seen  stretching  their  delicate  tendrils  over 
forest-trees,  and  the  cactus  and  the  mimosa  mingled  with 
common  field-flowers.  If  I  linger  amongst  these  things,  it 
is  because  they  contrasted  so  strikingly  to  me  with  the  trim 
propriety  and  fastidious  neatness  of  the  Malibran  Villa, 
where  no  leaf  littered  a  walk,  nor  a  single  tarnished  blossom 
was  suffered  to  remain  on  its  stalk.  Yet  was  the  Abazzia 
Villa  a  thousand  times  more  beautiful.  In  the  one,  the 
uppermost  thought  was  the  endless  care  and  skill  of  the  gar- 
deners, and  the  wealth  that  had  provided  them.  The  clink 
of  gold  seemed  to  rise  from  the  crushed  gravel  as  you 
walked;  the  fountains  glittered  with  gold;  the  conserva- 
tories exhaled  it.  Here,  however,  it  seemed  as  though 
Nature,  rich  in  her  own  unbounded  resources,  was  showing 
how  little  she  needed  of  man  or  his  appliances.  It  was  the 
very  exuberance  of  growth  on  every  side ;  and  all  this  backed 
by  a  bold  mountain  lofty  as  an  Alp,  and  washed  by  a  sea 
in  front,  and  that  sea  the  blue  Adriatic. 

I  had  often  heard  of  the  thrift  and  parsimony  of  Herr 
Oppovich's  household.  Even  in  the  humble  eating-house  I 
frequented,  sneers  at  its  economies  were  frequent.  No  trace 
of  such  a  saving  spirit  displaj^ed  itself  on  this  occasion. 
Not  merely  were  guests  largely  and  freely  invited,  but  car- 
riages were  stationed  at  appointed  spots  to  convey  them  to 


.636  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

the  villa,  and  a  number  of  boats  awaited  at  the  mole  for 
those  who  preferred  to  go  by  water.  This  latter  mode  of 
conveyance  was  adopted  by  the  clerks  and  officials  of  the 
house,  as  savoring  less  of  pretension;  and  so  was  it  that 
just  as  the  morning  was  ripening  into  warmth,  I  found 
myself  one  of  a  large  company  in  a  wide  eight-oared  boat, 
calmly  skimming  along  towards  Abazzia.  By  some  accident 
I  got  separated  from  Hanserl ;  and  when  I  waved  my  hand 
to  him  to  join  me,  he  delayed  to  return  my  salutation,  for, 
as  he  said  afterwards,  I  was  gar  schon,  —  quite  fine,  —  and 
he  did  not  recognize  me. 

It  was  true  I  had  dressed  myself  in  the  velvet  jacket  and 
vest  I  had  worn  on  the  night  of  our  own  fete,  and  wore  my 
velvet  cap,  without,  however,  the  heron  feather,  any  more 
than  I  put  on  any  of  my  trinkets,  or  even  my  watch. 

This  studied  simplicity  on  my  part  was  not  rewarded  as- 
I  hoped  for;  since,  scarcely  were  we  under  way,  than  my 
dress  and  "get-up "  became  the  subject  of  an  animated 
debate  among  my  companions,  who  discussed  me  with  a 
freedom  and  a  candor  that  showed  they  regarded  me  simply 
as  a  sort  of  lay  figure  for  the  display  of  so  much  drapery. 

''That's  how  they  dress  in  the  yard,"  cried  one;  "and 
we  who  have  three  times  the  pay,  can  scarcely  afford  broad- 
cloth.    Will  any  one  explain  that  to  me  ?  " 

"There  must  be  rare  perquisites  down  there,"  chimed  in 
another ;  "  for  they  say  that  the  old  dwarf  Hanserl  has  laid 
by  two  thousand  gulden." 

"They  tell  me  five  thousand,"  said  another. 

"Two  or  twenty-two  would  make  no  difference.  No  fellow 
on  his  pay  could  honestly  do  more  than  keep  life  in  his 
body,  not  to  speak  of  wearing  velvet  like  the  younker 
there." 

A  short  digression  now  intervened,  one  of  the  party 
having  suggested  that  in  England  velvet  was  the  cheapest 
wear  known,  that  all  the  laborers  on  canals  and  railroads 
wore  it  from  economy,  and  that,  in  fact,  it  was  the  badge 
of  a  very  humble  condition.  The  assertion  encountered 
some  disbelief,  and  it  was  ultimately  suggested  to  refer  the 
matter  to  me  for  decision,  this  being  the  first  evidence  they 
had  given  of  their  recognition  of  me  as  a  sentient  being. 


THE  SAIL  ACROSS  THE  BAY.  537 

"What  would  he  know?"  broke  in  an  elderly  clerk;  "he 
must  have  come  away  from  England  a  mere  child,  seeing 
how  he  speaks  German  now." 

"Or  if  he  did  know,  is  it  likely  he  *d  tell?"  observed 
another. 

"At  all  events,  let  us  ask  him  what  it  costs.  I  say, 
Knabe,  come  here  and  let  us  see  your  fine  clothes ;  we  are  all 
proud  of  having  so  grand  a  colleague." 

"You  might  show  your  pride,  then,  more  suitably  than  by 
insulting  him,"  said  I,  with  perfect  calm. 

Had  I  discharged  a  loaded  pistol  in  the  midst  of  them, 
the  dismay  and  astonishment  could  not  have  been  greater. 

That  any  one  "aus  dem  Hof  "  —  "out  of  the  yard"  — 
should  presume  to  think  he  had  feelings  that  could  be  out- 
raged, seemed  a  degree  of  arrogance  beyond  belief,  and  my 
word  "insult"  was  repeated  from  mouth  to  mouth  with 
amazement. 

"Come  here,  Knabe,"  said  the  cashier,  in  a  voice  of 
blended  gentleness  and  command,  —  "  come  here,  and  let  us 
talk  to  you." 

I  arose  and  made  my  way  from  the  bow  to  the  stern  of 
the  boat.  Short  as  the  distance  was,  it  gave  me  time  to 
bethink  me  that  I  must  repress  all  anger  or  irritation  if  I 
desired  to  keep  my  secret ;  so  that  when  I  reached  my  place, 
my  mind  was  made  up. 

"Silk- velvet  as  I  live!"  said  one  who  passed  his  hand 
along  my  sleeve  as  I  went. 

"No  one  wishes  to  offend  you,  youngster,"  said  the  cashier 
to  me,  as  he  placed  me  beside  him ;  "nor  when  we  talk  freely 
to  each  other,  as  is  our  wont,  are  any  of  us  offended." 

"But  you  forget,  sir,"  said  I,  "that  I  have  no  share  in 
these  freedoms,  and  that  were  I  to  attempt  them,  you'd 
resent  the  liberty  pretty  soon." 

"The  Knabe  is  right,"  "He  says  what's  true,"  "He 
speaks  sensibly,"  were  muttered  all  around. 

"You  have  been  well  educated,  I  suspect?"  said  the 
cashier,  in  a  gentle  voice;  and  now  the  thought  that  by  a 
word  —  a  mere  word  —  I  might  compromise  myself  beyond 
recall  flashed  across  me,  and  I  answered,  "I  have  learned 
some  things." 


^38  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"One  of  which  was  caution,"  broke  in  another;  and  a 
roar  of  laughter  welcomed  his  joke. 

Many  a  severer  sarcasm  would  not  have  cut  so  deeply  into 
me.  The  imputation  of  a  reserve  based  on  cunning  was  too 
much  for  my  temper,  and  in  a  moment  1  forgot  all  prudence, 
and  hotly  said,  ''If  I  am  such  an  object  of  interest  to  you, 
gentlemen,  that  you  must  know  even  the  details  of  my  edu- 
cation, the  only  way  I  see  to  satisfy  this  curiosity  of  yours 
is  to  say  that,  if  you  will  question  me  as  to  what  I  know 
and  what  I  do  not,  I  will  do  my  best  to  answer  you." 

"That's  a  challenge,"  cried  one;  "he  thinks  we  are  too 
illiterate  to  examine  him." 

"We  see  that  you  speak  German  fluently,"  said  the 
cashier;  "do  you  know  French?" 

I  nodded  assent. 

"And  Italian  and  English?" 

"Yes;  English  is  my  native  language.** 

"What  about  Greek  and  Latin,  boy?" 

"Very  little  Greek;  some  half-dozen  Latin  authors." 

"Any  Hebrew?"  chimed  in  one,  with  a  smile  of  half 
mockery. 

"Not  a  syllable." 

"That 's  a  pity,  for  you  could  have  chatted  with  Herr 
Ignaz  in  it." 

"Or  the  Fraulein,"  muttered  another.  "She  knows  no 
Hebrew,"  "She  does;  she  reads  it  well,"  "Nothing  of  the 
kind,"  were  quickly  spoken  from  many  quarters;  and  a  very 
hot  discussion  ensued,  in  which  the  Fraulein  Sara's  accom- 
plishments and  acquirements  took  the  place  of  mine  in  pub- 
lic interest. 

While  the  debate  went  on  with  no  small  warmth  on  either 
side,  —  for  it  involved  a  personal  question  that  stimulated 
each  of  the  combatants;  namely,  the  amount  of  intimacy 
they  enjoyed  in  the  family  and  household  of  their  master:  a 
point  on  which  they  seemed  to  feel  the  most  acute  sensi- 
bility, —  while  this,  therefore,  continued,  the  cashier  patted 
me  good-humoredly  on  the  arm,  and  asked  me  how  I  liked 
Fiume ;  if  I  had  made  any  pleasant  acquaintances ;  and  how 
1  usually  passed  my  evenings  ?  And  while  thus  chatting  pleas- 
;antly,  we  glided  into  the  little  bay  of  the  villa,  and  landed. 


THE  SAIL  ACROSS  THE  BAY.  639 

As  boat  after  boat  came  alongside  the  jetty,  numbers 
rushed  down  to  meet  and  welcome  their  friends.  All 
seemed  half  wild  with  delight;  and  the  adventures  they 
had  had  on  the  road,  the  loveliness  of  the  villa,  and  the 
courtesy  they  had  been  met  with,  resounded  on  every  side. 
All  had  friends,  eager  to  talk  or  to  listen,  —  all  but  myself. 
I  alone  had  no  companionship;  for  in  the  crowd  and  confu- 
sion I  could  not  find  Hanserl,  and  to  ask  after  him  was  but 
to  risk  the  danger  of  an  impertinence. 

I  sat  myself  down  on  a  rustic  bench  at  last,  thinking  that 
if  I  remained  fixed  in  one  spot  I  might  have  the  best  chance 
to  discover  him.  And  now  I  could  mark  the  strange  com- 
pany, which,  of  every  age,  and  almost  of  every  condition, 
appeared  to  be  present.  If  the  marked  features  of  the 
Hebrew  abounded,  there  were  types  of  the  race  that  I  had 
never  seen  before :  fair-haired  and  olive-eyed,  with  a  certain 
softness  of  expression,  united  with  great  decision  about  the 
mouth  and  chin.  The  red  Jew,  too,  was  there :  the  fierce- 
eyed,  dark-browed,  hollow-cheeked  fellow,  of  piercing  acute- 
ness  in  expression,  and  an  almost  reckless  look  of  purpose 
about  him.  There  was  greed,  craft,  determination,  at  times 
even  violence,  to  be  read  in  the  faces ;  but  never  weakness, 
never  imbecility;  and  so  striking  was  this  that  the  Chris- 
tian physiognomy  seemed  actually  vulgar  when  contrasted 
with  those  faces  so  full  of  vigorous  meaning  and  concen- 
tration. 

Nothing  could  be  less  like  my  father's  guests  than  these 
people.  It  was  not  in  dress  and  demeanor  and  general  car- 
riage that  they  differed,  —  in  their  gestures  as  they  met,  in 
their  briefest  greetings,  —  but  the  whole  character  of  their 
habits,  as  expressed  by  their  faces,  seemed  so  unlike  that 
I  could  not  imagine  any  clew  to  their  several  ranks,  and  how 
this  one  was  higher  or  greater  than  that.  All  the  national- 
ities of  Eastern  Europe  were  there,  —  Hungarian,  Styrian, 
Dalmatian,  and  Albanian.  Traders  all:  this  one  bond  of 
traffic  and  gain  blending  into  a  sort  of  family  races  and 
creeds  the  most  discordant,  and  types  whose  forefathers 
had  been  warring  with  each  other  for  centuries.  Plenty 
of  coarseness  there  was,  unculture  and  roughness  every- 
where;  but,    strangely    enough,    little    vulgarity    and    no 


640  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

weakness,  no  deficient  energy  anywhere.  They  were  the 
warriors  of  commerce;  and  they  brought  to  the  battle  of 
trade  resolution  and  boldness  and  persistence  and  daring 
not  a  whit  inferior  to  what  their  ancestors  had  carried  into 
personal  conflict. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


AT   THE    FETE. 


If,  seated  on  my  rustic  bench  under  a  spreading  ilex,  I  was 
not  joining  in  the  pleasures  and  amusements  of  those  around 
me,  I  was  tasting  an  amount  of  enjoyment  to  the  full  as 
great.  It  was  my  first  holiday  after  many  months  of 
monotonous  labor.  It  was  the  first  moment  in  which  I  felt 
myself  free  to  look  about  me  without  the  irksome  thought  of 
a  teasing  duty,  —  that  everlasting  song  of  score  and  tally, 
which  Hans  and  I  sang  duet  fashion,  and  which  at  last 
seemed  to  enter  into  my  very  veins  and  circulate  with  my 
blood. 

The  scene  itself  was  of  rare  beauty.  Seated  as  I  was, 
the  bay  appeared  a  vast  lake,  for  the  outlet  that  led  seaward 
was  backed  by  an  island,  and  thus  the  coast-line  seemed 
unbroken  throughout.  Over  this  wide  expanse  now  hun- 
dreds of  fishing-boats  were  moving  in  every  direction,  for 
the  wind  was  blowing  fresh  from  the  land,  and  permitted 
them  to  tack  and  beat  as  they  pleased.  If  thus  in  the  crisply 
curling  waves,  the  flitting  boats,  and  the  fast-flying  clouds 
above,  there  was  motion  and  life,  there  was,  in  the  high 
peaked-mountain  that  frowned  above  me,  and  in  the  dark 
rocks  that  lined  the  shore,  a  stern,  impassive  grandeur  that 
became  all  the  more  striking  from  contrast.  The  plashing 
water,  the  fishermen's  cries,  the  merry  laughter  of  the 
revellers  as  they  strayed  through  brake  and  copse,  seemed 
all  but  whispering  sounds  in  that  vast  amphitheatre  of 
mountain,  so  solemn  was  the  influence  of  those  towering 
crags  that  rose  towards  heaven. 

"Have  you  been  sitting  there  ever  since?"  asked  the 
cashier,  as  he  passed  me  with  a  string  of  friends. 

''Ever  since.'* 

"Not  had  any  breakfast?  " 


542  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

''None." 

"Nor  paid  your  compliments  to  Herr  Ignaz  and  the 
Fraulein?" 

I  shook  my  head  in  dissent. 

"Worst  of  all,"  said  he,  half  rebukingly,  and  passed  on. 
I  now  bethought  me  how  remiss  I  had  been.  It  is  true  it 
was  through  a  sense  of  my  own  insignificant  station  that  I 
had  not  presented  myself  to  my  host ;  but  I  ought  to  have 
remembered  that  this  excuse  could  have  no  force  outside  the 
limits  of  my  own  heart;  and  so,  as  I  despaired  of  finding 
Hanserl,  whose  advice  might  have  aided  me,  I  set  out  at 
once  to  make  my  respects. 

A  long,  straight  avenue,  flanked  by  tall  lime-trees,  led 
from  the  sea  to  the  house;  and  as  I  passed  up  this, 
crowded  now  like  the  chief  promenade  of  a  city,  I  heard 
many  comments  as  I  went  on  my  dress  and  appearance. 
"What  have  we  here?"  said  one.  "Is  this  a  prince  or  a 
mountebank?"  "What  boy,  with  a  much-braid-bedizened 
velvet  coat  is  this?  "  muttered  an  old  German,  as  he  pointed 
at  me  with  his  pipe-stick. 

One  pronounced  me  a  fencing-master;  but  public  repro- 
bation found  its  limit  at  last  by  calling  me  a  Frenchman. 
Shall  I  own  that  I  heard  all  these  with  something  much  more 
akin  to  pride  than  to  shame  ?  The  mere  fact  that  they  recog- 
nized me  as  unlike  one  of  themselves  —  that  they  saw  in  me 
what  was  not  "Fiumano"  —  was  in  itself  a  flattery;  and  as 
to  the  depreciation,  it  was  pure  ignorance !  I  am  afraid  that 
I  even  showed  how  defiantly  I  took  this  criticism, —  showed 
it  in  my  look,  and  showed  it  in  my  gait;  for  as  I  ascended 
the  steps  to  the  terrace  of  the  villa,  I  heard  more  than  one 
comment  on  my  pretentious  demeanor.  Perhaps  some  rumor 
of  the  approach  of  a  distinguished  guest  had  reached  Herr 
Oppovich  where  he  sat,  at  a  table  with  some  of  the  magnates 
of  Fiume,  for  he  hastily  arose  and  came  forward  to  meet 
me.  Just  as  I  gained  the  last  terrace,  the  old  man  stood 
bareheaded  and  bowing  before  me,  a  semicircle  of  wonder- 
ing guests  at  either  side  of  him. 

"Whom  have  I  the  distinguished  honor  to  receive?  "  said 
Herr  Ignaz,  with  a  profound  show  of  deference. 

"Don't  you  know  me,  sir?     Owen,  —  Digby  Owen." 


AT  THE  FETE.  643 

"What!  —  how?  —  Eh  —  in  heaven's  name  —  sure  it 
can't  be!  Why,  I  protest  it  is,"  cried  he,  laying  his  hand 
on  my  shoulder,  as  if  to  test  my  reality.  "This  passes  all 
belief.  Who  ever  saw  the  like !  Come  here,  Knabe,  come 
here."  And  slipping  his  hand  within  my  arm,  he  led  me 
towards  the  table  he  had  just  quitted.  "Sara,"  cried  he, 
"here  is  a  guest  you  have  not  noticed;  a  high  and  well- 
born stranger,  who  claims  all  your  attention.  Let  him  have 
the  place  of  honor  at  your  side.  This,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, is  Herr  Digby  Owen,  the  stave-counter  of  my  timber- 
yard  ! "  And  he  burst,  with  this,  into  a  roar  of  laughter, 
that,  long  pent  up  by  an  effort,  now  seemed  to  threaten  him. 
with  a  fit.  Nor  was  the  company  slow  in  chorusing  him; 
round  after  round  shook  the  table,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the 
joke  could  never  be  exhausted. 

All  this  time  I  stood  with  my  eyes  fixed  on  the  Fraulein, 
whose  glance  was  directed  as  steadfastly  on  me.  It  was  a 
haughty  look  she  bent  on  me,  but  it  became  her  well,  and  I 
forgave  all  the  scorn  it  conveyed  in  the  pleasure  her  beauty 
gave  me.  My  face,  which  at  first  was  in  a  flame,  became 
suddenly  cold,  and  a  faintish  sickness  was  creeping  over 
me,  so  that,  to  steady  myself,  I  had  to  lay  my  hand  on  a 
chair.  "Won't  you  sit  down?"  said  she,  in  a  voice  fully 
as  much  command  as  invitation.  She  pointed  to  a  chair  a 
little  distance  from  her  own,  and  I  obeyed. 

The  company  appeared  now  somewhat  ashamed  of  its  rude 
display  of  merriment,  and  seeing  how  quietly  and  calmly  I 
bore  myself, — unresentingly  too, —  there  seemed  something 
like  a  reaction  in  my  favor.  Foreigners,  it  must  be  said, 
are  generally  sorry  when  betrayed  into  any  exhibition  of 
ill-breeding,  and  hastily  seek  to  make  amends  for  it.  Per- 
haps Herr  Oppovich  himself  was  the  least  ready  in  this 
movement,  for  he  continued  to  look  on  me  with  a  strange 
blending  of  displeasure  and  amusement. 

The  business  of  breakfast  was  now  resumed,  and  the  ser- 
vants passed  round  with  the  dishes,  helping  me  amongst 
the  rest.  While  I  was  eating,  I  heard  —  what,  of  course, 
was  not  meant  for  my  ears  —  an  explanation  given  by  one 
of  the  company  of  my  singular  appearance.  He  had  lived 
in  England,  and  said  that  the  English  of  every  condition 


544  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

had  a  passion  for  appearing  to  belong  to  some  rank  above 
their  own;  that  to  accomplish  this  there  was  no  sacrifice 
they  would  not  make,  for  these  assumptions  imposed  upon 
those  who  made  them  fully  as  much  as  on  the  public  they 
were  made  for.  "You'll  see,"  added  he,  "that  the  youth 
there,  so  long  as  he  figures  in  that  fine  dress,  will  act  up  to 
it,  so  far  as  he  knows  how.  He  talked  with  a  degree  of 
assurance  and  fluency  that  gained  conviction,  and  I  saw 
that  his  hearers  went  along  with  him,  and  there  soon  began 
—  very  cautiously  and  very  guardedly,  indeed  —  a  sort  of 
examination  of  me  and  my  pretensions,  for  which,  fortu- 
nately for  me,  I  was  so  far  prepared. 

"And  do  all  English  boys  of  your  rank  in  life  speak  and 
read  four  languages?"  asked  Herr  Ignaz,  after  listening 
some  time  to  my  answers. 

"You  are  assuming  to  know  his  rank,  papa,"  whispered 
Sara,  who  watched  me  closely  during  the  whole  inter- 
rogatory. 

"Let  him  answer  my  question,"  rejoined  the  old  man, 
roughly. 

"Perhaps  not  all,"  said  I,  half  amused  at  the  puzzle  I 
was  becoming  to  them. 

"Then  how  came  it  your  fortune  to  know  them,  —  that  is, 
if  you  do  know  them  ?  " 

Slipping  out  of  his  question,  I  replied,  "Nothing  can  be 
easier  than  to  test  that  point.  There  are  gentlemen  here 
whose  acquirements  go  far  beyond  mine." 

"Your  German  is  very  good,"  said  Sara.  "Let  me  hear 
you  speak  French." 

"It  is  too  much  honor  for  me,"  said  I,  bowing,  "to 
address  you  at  all." 

"  Is  your  Italian  as  neat  in  accent  as  that  ?  "  asked  a  lady 
near. 

"I  believe  I  am  best  in  Italian,  —  of  course,  after  Eng- 
lish, —  for  I  always  talked  it  with  my  music-master,  as  well 
as  with  my  teacher." 

"Music-master!"  cried  Herr  Ignaz;  "what  phoenix  have 
we  here?" 

"I  don't  think  we  are  quite  fair  to  this  boy,"  said  a 
stern-featured,  middle-aged  man.     "He  has  shown  us  that 


AT  THE  FETE.  545 

there  is  no  imposition  in  his  pretensions,  and  we  have  no 
right  to  question  him  further.  If  Herr  Ignaz  thinks  you 
too  highly  gifted  for  his  service,  young  man,  come  over  to 
Carl  Bettmeyer's  counting-house  to-morrow  at  noon." 

"I  thank  you,  sir,"  said  I,  "and  am  very  grateful;  but 
if  Herr  Oppovich  will  bear  with  me,  I  will  not  leave  him." 

Sara's  eyes  met  mine  as  I  spoke,  and  I  cannot  tell  what  a 
Hood  of  rapture  her  look  sent  into  my  heart. 

"The  boy  will  do  well  enough,"  muttered  Herr  Ignaz. 
"  Let  us  have  a  ramble  through  the  grounds,  and  see  how 
the  skittle-players  go  on." 

And  thus  passed  off  the  little  incident  of  my  appearance : 
An  incident  of  no  moment  to  any  but  myself,  as  I  was  soon 
to  feel ;  for  the  company,  descending  the  steps,  strayed  away 
in  broken  twos  or  threes  through  the  grounds,  as  caprice  or 
will  inclined  them. 

If  I  were  going  to  chronicle  the  fete  itself,  I  might,  per- 
haps, say  there  was  a  striking  contrast  between  the  pictur- 
esque beauty  of  the  spot,  and  the  pastime  of  those  who 
occupied  it.  The  scene  recalled  nothing  so  much  as  a  vil- 
lage fair.  All  the  simple  out-of-door  amusements  of  popular 
taste  were  there.  There  were  conjurors  and  saltimbanques 
and  fortune-tellers,  lottery-booths  and  ninepin  alleys  and 
restaurants,  only  differing  from  their  prototypes  in  that 
there  was  nothing  to  pay.  If  a  considerable  number  of  the 
guests  were  well  pleased  with  the  pleasures  provided  for 
them,  there  were  others  no  less  amused  as  spectators  of 
these  enjoyments,  and  the  result  was  an  amount  of  mirth 
and  good  humor  almost  unbounded.  There  were  representa- 
tives of  almost  every  class  and  condition,  from  the  prosper- 
ous merchant  or  rich  banker  down  to  the  humblest  clerk,  or 
even  the  porter  of  the  warehouse ;  and  yet  a  certain  tone  of 
equality  pervaded  all,  and  I  observed  that  they  mixed  with 
each  other  on  terms  of  friendliness  and  familiarity  that 
never  recalled  any  difference  of  condition;  and  this  feature 
alone  was  an  ample  counterpoise  to  any  vulgarity  observable 
in  their  manners.  If  there  was  any  "snobbery,"  it  was  of 
a  species  quite  unlike  what  we  have  at  home,  and  I  could 
not  detect  it. 

While  I  strolled  about,  amusing  myself  with  the  strange 

35 


546  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

sights  and  scenes  around  me,  I  suddenly  came  upon  a  sort 
of  merry-go-round,  where  the  performers,  seated  on  small 
hobby-horses,  tilted  with  a  lance  at  a  ring  as  they  spun 
round,  their  successes  or  failures  being  hailed  with  cheers 
or  with  laughter  from  the  spectatorSo  To  my  intense  aston- 
ishment, I  might  almost  say  shame,  Hanserl  was  there! 
Mounted  on  a  fiery  little  gray,  with  bloodshot  eyes  and  a 
flowing  tail,  the  old  fellow  seemed  to  have  caught  the  spirit 
of  his  steed,  for  he  stood  up  in  his  stirrups,  and  leaned  for- 
ward with  an  eagerness  that  showed  how  he  enjoyed  the 
sport.  Why  was  it  that  the  spectacle  so  shocked  me?  Why 
was  it  that  I  shrunk  back  into  the  crowd,  fearful  that  he 
might  recognize  me?  Was  it  not  well  if  the  poor  fellow 
could  throw  off,  even  for  a  passing  moment,  the  weary 
drudgery  of  his  daily  life,  and  play  the  fool  just  for  distrac- 
tion' sake?  All  this  I  could  have  believed  and  accepted  a 
short  time  before,  and  yet  now  a  strange  revulsion  of  feeling 
had  come  over  me  and  I  went  away,  well  pleased  that  Han& 
had  not  seen  nor  claimed  me.  ''These  vulgar  games  don't 
amuse  you,"  said  a  voice  at  my  side;  and  I  turned  and  saw 
the  merchant  who,  at  the  break  fast- table,  invited  me/ to  his- 
counting-house. 

"Not  that,"  said  I;  "but  they  seem  strange  and  odd  at  a 
private  entertainment.  I  was  scarce  prepared  to  see  them 
here." 

"I  suspect  that  is  not  exactly  the  reason,"  said  he,  laugh- 
ing. "I  know  something  of  your  English  tone  of  exclusive- 
ness,  and  how  each  class  of  your  people  has  its  appropriate 
pleasures.     You  scorn  to  be  amused  in  low  company." 

"You  seem  to  forget  my  own  condition,  sir." 

"Come,  come,"  said  he,  with  a  knowing  look,  "I  am  not 
so  easily  imposed  upon,  as  I  told  you  awhile  back.  I  know 
England.  Your  ways  and  notions  are  all  known  to  me. 
It  is  not  in  the  place  you  occupy  here  young  lads  are  found 
who  speak  three  or  four  languages,  and  have  hands  that 
show  as  few  signs  of  labor  as  yours.  Mind,"  said  he, 
quickly,  "I  don't  want  to  know  your  secret." 

"If  I  had  a  secret,  it  is  scarcely  likely  I'd  tell  it  to  a 
stranger,"  said  I,  haughtily. 

"Just  so;  you  'd  know  your  man  before  you  trusted  him. 


AT  THE  r:gTE.  547 

Well,  I  'm   more   generous,  and  I  'm  going  to  trust  you, 
whom  I  never  saw  till  half  an  hour  ago." 

''Trust  you,"  repeated  he,  slowly.  "And  first  of  all, 
what  age  would  you  give  that  young  lady  whose  birthday  we 
are  celebrating?'* 

"Seventeen  —  eighteen  —  perhaps  nineteen." 

"I  thought  you'd  say  so;  she  looks  nineteen.  Well,  I 
can  tell  you  her  age  to  an  hour.     She  is  fifteen  to-day." 

"Fifteen!" 

"Not  a  day  older,  and  yet  she  is  the  most  finished  coquette 
in  Europe.  Having  given  Fiume  to  understand  that  there 
is  not  a  man  here  whose  pretensions  she  would  listen  to,  her 
whole  aim  and  object  is  to  surround  herself  with  admirers, 
—  I  might  say  worshippers.  Young  fellows  are  fools  enough 
to  believe  they  have  a  chance  of  winning  her  favor,  while 
each  sees  how  contemptuously  she  treats  the  other.  They 
do  not  perceive  it  is  the  number  of  adorers  she  cares  for." 

"But  what  is  all  this  to  me?" 

"Simply  that  you  '11  be  enlisted  in  that  corps  to-morrow," 
said  he,  with  a  malicious  laugh;  "and  I  thought  I  'd  do  you 
a  good  turn  to  warn  you  as  to  what  is  in  store  for  you." 

"Me?  /enlisted!  Why,  just  bethink  you,  sir,  who  and 
what  I  am:  the  very  lowest  creature  in  her  father's  employ- 
ment." 

"What  does  that  signify?  There  's  a  mystery  about  you. 
You  are  not  —  at  least  you  were  not  —  what  you  seem  now. 
You  have  as  good  looks  and  better  manners  than  the  people 
usually  about  her.  She  can  amuse  herself  with  you,  and  so 
far  harmlessly  that  she  can  dismiss  you  when  she  's  tired 
of  you,  and  if  she  can  only  persuade  you  to  believe  yourself 
in  love  with  her,  and  can  store  up  a  reasonable  share  of 
misery  for  you  in  consequence,  you  '11  make  her  nearer 
being  happy  than  she  has  felt  this  many  a  day." 

"I  don't  understand  all  this,"  said  I,  doubtingly. 

"Well,  you  will  one  of  these  days ;  that  is,  unless  you  have 
the  good  sense  to  take  my  warning  in  good  part,  and  avoid 
her  altogether." 

"It  will  be  quite  enough  for  me  to  bear  in  mind  who  she 
is,  and  what  I  am !  "  said  I,  calmly. 


548  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"You  think  so?  Well,  I  don't  agree  with  you.  At  all 
events,  keep  what  I  have  said  to  yourself,  even  if  you  don't 
mean  to  profit  by  it."     And  with  this  he  left  me. 

That  strange  education  of  mine,  in  which  M.  de  Balzac 
figured  as  a  chief  instructor,  made  me  reflect  on  what  I  had 
heard  in  a  spirit  little  like  that  of  an  ordinary  lad  of  sixteen 
years  of  age.  Those  wonderful  stories,  in  which  passion 
and  emotion  represent  action,  and  where  the  great  game  of 
life  is  played  out  at  a  fireside  or  in  a  window  recess,  and 
where  feeling  and  sentiment  war  and  fight  and  win  or  lose, 
—  these  same  tales  supplied  me  with  wherewithal  to  under- 
stand this  man's  warnings,  and  at  the  same  time  to  suspect 
his  motives ;  and  from  that  moment  my  life  became  invested 
with  new  interests  and  new  anxieties,  and  to  my  own  heart 
I  felt  myself  a  hero  of  romance. 

As  I  sauntered  on,  revolving  very  pleasant  thoughts  to 
myself,  I  came  upon  a  party  who  were  picnicking  under  a 
tree.  Some  of  them  graciously  made  a  place  for  me,  and  I 
sat  down  and  ate  my  dinner  with  them.  They  were  very 
humble  people,  all  of  them,  but  courteous  and  civil  to  my 
quality  of  stranger  in  a  remarkable  degree.  Nor  was  I  less 
struck  by  the  delicate  forbearance  they  showed  towards  the 
host ;  for,  while  the  servant  pressed  them  to  drink  Bordeaux 
and  champagne,  they  merely  took  the  little  wines  of  the 
country,  perfectly  content  with  simple  fare  and  the  courtesy 
that  offered  them  better. 

When  one  of  them  asked  me  if  I  had  ever  seen  a  fete  of 
such  magnificence  in  my  own  country,  my  mind  went  back 
to  that  costly  entertainment  of  our  villa,  and  Pauline  came 
up  before  me,  with  her  long  dark  eyelashes,  and  those  lus- 
trous eyes  beaming  with  expression,  and  flashing  with  a 
light  that  dazzled  while  it  charmed.  Coquetry  has  no  such 
votaries  as  the  young.  Its  artifices,  its  studied  graces, 
its  thousand  rogueries,  to  them  seem  all  that  is  most 
natural  and  most  "naive;"  and  thus  every  toss  of  her 
dark  curls,  every  little  mock  resentment  of  her  beautiful 
mouth,  every  bend  and  motion  of  her  supple  figure,  rose 
to  my  mind,  till  I  pictured  her  image  before  me,  and 
thought  I  saw  her. 

"What  a  hunt  I  have  had  after  you,  Herr  Englander!  " 


AT  THE  FfiTE.  549 

said  a  servant,  who  came  up  to  me  all  flushed  and  heated. 
"  I  have  been  over  the  whole  park  in  search  of  you. " 

*'In  search  of  me?     Surely  you  mistake." 

*'No;  it  is  no  mistake.  I  see  no  one  here  in  a  velvet 
jacket  but  yourself;  and  Herr  Ignaz  told  me  to  find  you  and 
tell  you  that  there  is  a  place  kept  for  you  at  his  table,  and 
they  are  at  dinner  now  in  the  large  tent  before  the  terrace." 

I  took  leave  of  my  friends,  who  rose  respectfully  to  make 
their  adieux  to  the  honored  guest  of  the  host,  and  I  followed 
the  servant  to  the  house.  I  was  not  without  my  misgivings 
that  the  scene  of  the  morning,  with  its  unpleasant  cross- 
examination  of  me,  might  be  repeated,  and  I  even  canvassed 
myself  how  far  I  ought  to  submit  to  such  liberties ;  but  the 
event  was  not  to  put  my  dignity  to  the  test.  I  was  received 
on  terms  of  perfect  equality  with  those  about  me ;  and  though 
the  dinner  had  made  some  progress  before  I  arrived,  it  was 
with  much  difficulty  I  could  avoid  being  served  with  soup 
and  all  the  earlier  delicacies  of  the  entertainment. 

I  will  not  dwell  on  the  day  that  to  recall  seems  more  to 
me  like  a  page  out  of  a  fairy  tale  than  a  little  incident  of 
daily  life.  I  was,  indeed,  to  all  intents,  the  enchanted 
prince  of  a  story,  who  went  about  with  the  lovely  princess 
on  his  arm,  for  I  danced  the  mazurka  with  the  Fraulein 
Sara,  and  was  her  partner  several  times  during  the  evening, 
and  finished  the/^^e  with  her  in  the  cotillon;  she  declaring, 
in  that  calm  quiet  voice  that  did  not  seek  to  be  unheard 
around,  that  I  alone  could  dance  the  waltz  a  deux  temps, 
and  that  I  slid  gently,  and  did  not  spring  like  a  Fiumano, 
or  bound  like  a  French  bagman,  —  a  praise  that  brought 
on  me  some  very  menacing  looks  from  certain  commis- 
voyageurs  near  me,  and  which  I,  confident  in  my  "skill  of 
fence,"  as  insolently  returned. 

"  You  are  not  to  return  to  the  Hof ,  Herr  von  Owen,  to- 
morrow," said  she,  as  we  parted.  "You  are  to  wait  on 
papa  at  his  office  at  eleven  o'clock."  And  there  was  a 
staid  dignity  in  her  words  that  spoke  command;  but  in 
styling  me  "von,"  there  was  a  whole  world  of  recognition, 
and  I  kissed  her  hand  as  I  said  good-night  with  all  the 
deference  of  her  slave,  and  all  the  devotion  of  one  who 
already  felt  her  power  and  delighted  in  it. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

OUR   INNER   LIFE. 

Let  me  open  this  chapter  with  an  apology,  and  I  mean  it 
not  only  to  extend  to  errors  of  the  past,  but  to  whatever 
similar  blunders  I  may  commit  hereafter.  What  I  desire 
to  ask  pardon  for  is  this:  I  find  in  this  attempt  of  mine 
to  jot  down  a  portion  of  my  life,  that  I  have  laid  a  most 
disproportionate  stress  on  some  passages  the  most  insig- 
nificant and  unimportant.  Thus,  in  my  last  chapter  I  have 
dwelt  unreasonably  on  the  narrative  of  one  day's  pleasure, 
while  it  may  be  that  a  month,  or  several  months,  shall  pass 
over  with  scarcely  mention.  For  this  fault  —  and  I  do  not 
attempt  to  deny  it  is  a  fault  —  I  have  but  one  excuse.  It 
is  this :  my  desire  has  been  to  place  before  my  reader  the 
events,  small  as  they  might  be,  that  influenced  my  life  and 
decided  my  destiny.  Had  I  not  gone  to  this  fUe^  for  in- 
stance, —  had  I  taken  my  holiday  in  some  quiet  ramble  into 
the  hills  alone,  or  had  I  passed  it,  as  I  have  passed  scores 
of  happy  hours,  in  the  solitude  of  my  own  room, — how 
different  might  have  been  my  fate ! 

We  all  of  us  know  how  small  and  apparently  insignificant 
are  the  events  by  which  the  course  of  our  lives  is  shapen. 
A  look  we  catch  at  parting,  a  word  spoken  that  might 
have  passed  unheard,  a  pressure  of  the  hand  that  might 
or  might  not  have  been  felt,  and  straightway  all  our  sail- 
ing orders  are  revoked,  and  instead  of  north  we  go  south. 
Bearing  this  in  mind,  my  reader  will  perhaps  forgive  me, 
and  at  least  bethink  him  that  these  things  are  not  done  by 
me  through  inadvertence,  but  of  intention  and  with  fore- 
thought. 

"  So  we  are  about  to  part,"  said  Hanserl  to  me,  as  I  awoke 
and  found  my  old  companion  at  my  bedside.     "You're  the 


OUR  INNER  LIFE.  651 

twenty-fifth  that  has  left  me,"  said  he,  mournfully.  "  But 
look  to  it,  Knabe,   change  is  not  always  betterment." 

*'Itwas  none  of  my  doing,  Hanserl;  none  of  my  seek- 
ing." 

''If  you  had  worn  the  gray  jacket  you  wear  on  Sundays, 
there  would  have  been  none  of  this,  lad!  I  have  seen 
double  as  many  years  in  the  yard  as  you  have  been  in  the 
world,  and  none  have  ever  seen  me  at  the  master's  table  or 
waltzing  with  the  master's  daughter." 

I  could  not  help  smiling,  in  spite  of  myself,  at  the  thought 
of  such  a  spectacle. 

"Nor  is  there  need  to  laugh  because  I  speak  of  danc- 
ing," said  he,  quickly.  "They  could  tell  you  up  in  Klep- 
towitz  there  are  worse  performers  than  Hans  Spouer ;  and 
if  he  is  not  an  Englishman,  he  is  an  honest  Austrian !  " 

This  he  said  with  a  sort  of  defiance,  and  as  if  he  expected 
a  reply. 

"I  have  told  you  already,  Hans,"  said  I,  soothingly, 
"that  it  was  none  of  my  seeking  if  I  am  to  be  transferred 
from  the  yard.  I  was  very  happy  there,  —  very  happy  to 
be  with  you.  We  were  good  comrades  in  the  past,  as  I 
ihope  we  may  be  good  friends  in  the  future." 

"  That  can  scarcely  be,"  said  he,  sorrowfully.  "  I  can 
have  no  friend  in  the  man  I  must  say  '  sir  *  to.  It 's  Herr 
Ignaz's  order,"  went  he  on ,  "he  sent  for  me  this  morning, 
and  said,  'Hanserl,  when  you  address  Herr  von  Owen,*  — 
aye,  he  said  Herr  von  Owen,  —  '  never  forget  he  is  your 
superior ;  and  though  he  once  worked  with  you  here  in  the 
yard,  that  was  his  caprice,  and  he  will  do  so  no  more." 

"But,  Hans,  my  dear  old  friend." 

"  Ja,  ja,"  said  he,  waving  his  hand.  "Jetzt  ist  aus!  It 
is  all  over  now.  Here  's  your  reckoning,"  and  he  laid  a  slip 
of  paper  on  the  bed :  "  Twelve  gulden  for  the  dinners, 
three-fifty  for  wine  and  beer,  two  gulden  for  the  wash. 
There  were  four  kreutzers  for  the  girl  with  the  guitar ;  you 
bade  me  give  her  ten,  but  four  was  plenty,  —  that  makes 
«eventeen-six-and-sixty :  and  you  've  twenty-three  gulden 
and  thirty- four  kreutzers  in  that  packet,  and  so  Leb  wohl." 

And,  with  a  short  wave  of  his  hand,  he  turned  away; 
and  as  he  left  the  room,  I  saw  that  the  other  hand  had  been 


652  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

drawn  over  his  eyes,  for  Hanserl  was  crying;  but  I  bur» 
ied  my  face  in  the  clothes,  and  sobbed  bitterly. 

My  orders  were  to  present  myself  at  Herr  Ignaz's  private 
office  by  noon.  Careful  not  to  presume  on  what  seemed 
at  least  a  happy  turn  in  my  destiny,  I  dressed  in  my  every- 
day clothes,  studious  only  that  they  should  be  clean  and 
well-brushed. 

"1  had  forgotten  you  altogether,  boy,"  said  Herr  Ignaz, 
as  I  entered  the  office,  and  he  went  on  closing  his  desk  and 
his  iron  safe  before  leaving  for  dinner.  ' '  What  was  it  I  had 
to  say  to  you  ?     Can  you  help  me  to  it,  lad  ?  " 

*'  I'm  afraid  not,  sir ;  I  only  know  that  you  told  me  to  be 
here  at  this  hour." 

"Let  me  see,"  said  he,  thoughtfully.  ''There  was  no 
complaint  against  you  ?  " 

"  None,  sir,  that  I  know  of." 

''  Nor  have  you  any  to  make  against  old  Hanserl?" 

"  Far  from  it,  sir.     I  have  met  only  kindness  from  him.** 

''  Wait,  wait,  wait,"  said  he.  ''I  believe  I  am  coming  to  it. 
It  was  Sara's  doing.  Yes,  I  have  it  now.  Sara  said  you 
should  not  be  in  the  yard ;  that  you  had  been  well  brought 
up  and  cared  for.  A  young  girl's  fancy,  perhaps.  Your 
hands  were  white.  But  there  is  more  bad  than  good  in 
this.  Men  should  be  in  the  station  they  're  fit  for ;  neither 
above  nor  below  it.  And  you  did  well  in  the  yard;  ay^ 
and  you  liked  it?" 

''  I  certainly  was  very  happy  there,  sir." 

"And  that's  all  one  strives  for,"  said  he,  with  a  faint 
sigh;  "  to  be  at  rest, — to  be  at  rest:  and  why  would  you 
change,  boy  ?  " 

"  I  am  not  seeking  a  change,  sir.  I  am  here  because  you 
bade  me." 

"That's  true.  Come  in  and  eat  your  soup  with  us,  and 
we  '11  see  what  the  girl  says,  for  I  have  forgotten  all  about 
it." 

He  opened  a  small  door  which  led  by  a  narrow  stair  into  a 
back  street,  and,  shuffling  along,  with  his  hat  drawn  over  his 
eyes,  made  for  the  little  garden  over  the  wooden  bridge,  and 
to  his  door.  This  he  unlocked,  and  then  bidding  me  follow, 
he  ascended  the  stairs. 


OUR  INNER  LIFE.  553 

The  room  into  which  we  entered  was  furnished  in  the  most 
plain  and  simple  fashion.  A  small  table,  with  a  coarse  cloth 
and  some  common  ware,  stood  ready  for  dinner,  and  a  large 
loaf  on  a  wooden  platter,  occupied  the  middle.  There  were 
but  two  places  prepared ;  but  the  old  man  speedily  arranged 
a  third  place,  muttering  to  himself  the  while,  but  what  I 
could  not  catch. 

As  he  was  thus  engaged,  the  Fraulein  entered.  She 
was  dressed  in  a  sort  of  brown  serge,  which,  though  of 
the  humblest  tissue,  showed  her  figure  to  great  advantage, 
for  it  fitted  to  perfection,  and  designed  the  graceful  lines' 
of  her  shoulders,  and  her  taper  waist  to  great  advantage. 
She  saluted  me  with  the  faintest  possible  smile,  and  said : 
"  You  are  come  to  dine  with  us?" 

"If  there  be  enough  to  give  him  to  eat,"  said  the  old  man, 
gruflEly.  "I  have  brought  him  here,  however,  with  other 
thoughts.  There  was  something  said  last  night,  —  what 
was  it,  girl?  —  something  about  this  lad,  —  do  you  remember 
it?" 

*' Here  is  the  soup,  father,"  said  she,  calmly.  "We'll 
bethink  us  of  these  things  by  and  by."  There  was  a 
strange  air  of  half-command  in  what  she  said,  the  tone 
of  one  who  asserted  a  certain  supremacy,  as  I  was  soon  to 
see  she  did  in  the  household.  "Sit  here,  Herr  von  Owen," 
said  she,  pointing  to  my  place,  and  her  words  were  uttered 
like  an  order. 

In  perfect  silence  the  meal  went  on ;  a  woman-servant 
entering  to  replace  the  soup  by  a  dish  of  boiled  meat, 
but  not  otherwise  waiting  on  us,  for  Sara  rose  and  re- 
moved our  plates  and  served  us  with  fresh  ones,  —  an  oflSce 
I  would  gladly  have  taken  from  her,  and  indeed  essayed 
to  do,  but  at  a  gesture,  and  a  look  that  there  was  no  mis- 
taking, I  sat  down  again,  and,  unmindful  of  my  presence, 
they  soon  began  to  talk  of  business  matters,  in  which,  to 
my  astonishment,  the  young  girl  seemed  thoroughly  versed. 
Cargoes  of  grain  for  Athens  consigned  to  one  house,  were 
now  to  be  transferred  to  some  other.  There  were  large 
orders  from  France  for  staves,  to  meet  which  some  one 
should  be  promptly  despatched  into  Hungary.  Hemp,  too, 
was  wanted  for  England.     There  was  a  troublesome  litiga- 


554  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

tion  with  an  Insurance  Company  at  Marseilles,  which  was 
evidently  going  against  the  House  of  Oppovich.  So  unlike 
was  all  this  the  tone  of  dinner  conversation  I  was  used  to 
that  I  listened  in  wonderment  how  they  could  devote  the 
hour  of  social  enjoyment  and  relaxation  to  details  so  per- 
plexing  and   so  vulgar. 

"There  is  that  affair  of  the  leakage,  too,"  cried  Herr 
Ignaz,  setting  down  his  glass  before  drinking ;  "I  had  nigh 
forgotten  it." 

''I  answered  the  letter  this  morning,"  said  the  girl, 
gravely.  "It  is  better  it  should  be  settled  at  once,  while 
the  exchanges  are  in  our  favor." 

"And  pay  —  pay  the  whole  amount,"  cried  he,  angrily. 

"Pay  it  all,"  replied  she,  calmly.  "We  must  not  let 
them  call  us  litigious,  father.  You  have  friends  here,"  and 
she  laid  emphasis  on  the  word,  "  that  would  not  be  grieved 
to  see  you  get  the  name." 

Twenty-seven  thousand  gulden ! "  exclaimed  he,  with  a 
quivering  lip.  "And  how  am  I  to  save  money  for  your 
dowry,  girl,  with  losses  like  these?" 

"You  forget,  sir,  we  are  not  alone,"  said  she,  proudly. 
"This  young  Englishman  can  scarcely  feel  interested  in 
these  details."  She  arose  as  she  spoke,  and  placed  a  few 
dishes  of  fruit  on  the  table,  and  then  served  us  with  coffee ; 
the  whole  done  so  unobtrusively  and  in  such  quiet  fashion  as 
to  make  her  services  appear  a  routine  that  could  not  call  for 
remark. 

"The  *Dalmat*  will  not  take  our  freight,"  said  he,  sud- 
denly.    "  There  is  some  combination  against  us  there." 

"I  will  look  to  it,"  said  she,  coldly.  "Will  you  try 
these  figs,  Herr  von  Owen?  Fiume,  they  say,  rivals  Smyrna 
in  purple  figs." 

"I  will  have  no  more  to  do  with  figs  or  olives  either," 
cried  out  Herr  Ignaz.  "  The  English  beat  you  down  to  the 
lowest  price,  and  then  refuse  your  cargo  for  one  damaged 
crate.     I  have  had  no  luck  with  England." 

Unconsciously,  I  know  it  was,  his  eyes  turned  fully  on  me 
as  he  spoke,  and  there  was  a  defiance  in  his  look  that  seemed 
like  a  personal  challenge. 

"  He  does  not  mean  it  for  you,"  said  the  Fraulein,  gently 


OUR  INNER  LIFE.  555 

in  my  ear,  and  her  voice  gained  a  softness  I  did  not  know  it 
possessed. 

Perhaps  the  old  man's  thoughts  had  taken  a  very  gloomy 
turn,  for  he  leaned  his  head  on  his  hand,  and  seemed  sunk 
in  revery.  The  Fraulein  rose  quietly,  and,  beckoning  me  to 
follow  her,  moved  noiselessly  into  an  adjoining  room.  This 
chamber,  furnished  a  little  more  tastefully,  had  a  piano,  and 
some  books  and  prints  lay  about  on  the  tables. 

*'My  father  likes  to  be  left  alone  at  times,"  said  she, 
gravely;  "  and  when  you  know  us  better,  you  will  learn  to 
see  what  these  times  are."  She  took  up  some  needlework 
she  had  been  engaged  on,  and  sat  down  on  a  sofa.  I  did 
not  well  know  whether  to  take  my  leave  or  keep  her  com- 
pany ;  and  while  I  hesitated  she  appeared  to  read  my  diffi- 
culty, and  said,  ''  You  are  free,  Herr  von  Owen,  if  you 
have  any  engagement." 

"  I  have  none,"  said  I ;  then  remembering  that  the  speech 
might  mean  to  dismiss  me,  I  added  hastily,  "  but  it  is  time 
to  .go." 

"Good-bye,  then,"  said  she,  making  me  a  slight  bow; 
and  I  went. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE    OFFICE. 

On  the  following  day  the  cashier  sent  for  me  to  say  it  was 
Herr  Oppovich's  wish  that  I  should  be  attached  to  some  de- 
partment in  the  office,  till  I  had  fully  mastered  its  details, 
and  then  be  transferred  to  another,  and  so  on,  till  I  had 
gradually  acquainted  myself  with  the  whole  business  of  the 
house.  '*It's  an  old  caprice  of  Herr  Ignaz's,"  said  he, 
••'  which  repeated  failures  have  not  yet  discouraged  him  with. 
You  're  the  fifth  he  has  tried  to  make  a  supervisor  of,  and 
you'll  follow  the  rest." 

**  Is  it  so  very  difficult  to  learn?"  asked  I,  modestly. 

*'  Perhaps  to  one  of  your  acquirements  it  might  not,"  said 
he,  with  quiet  irony,  ''but,  for  a  slight  example:  here,  in 
this  office,  we  correspond  with  five  countries  in  their  own 
languages;  yonder,  in  that  room,  they  talk  modern  Greek 
and  Albanian  and  Servian ;  there 's  the  Hungarian  group, 
next  that  bow  window,  and  that  takes  in  the  Lower  Danube ; 
and  in  what  we  call  the  Expeditions  department  there  are 
fellows  who  speak  seventeen  dialects,  and  can  write  ten  or 
twelve.  So  much  for  languages.  Then  what  do  you  say  to 
mastering  —  since  that 's  the  word  they  have  for  it  —  the 
grain  trade  from  Russia,  rags  from  Transylvania,  staves 
from  Hungary,  fruit  from  the  Levant,  cotton  from  Egypt, 
minerals  from  Lower  Austria,  and  woollen  fabrics  from 
Bohemia?  We  do  something  in  all  of  these,  besides  a  fair 
share  in  oak  bark  and  hemp." 

"  Stop,  for  mercy's  sake  !  "  I  cried  out.  "  It  would  take 
a  lifetime  to  gain  a  mere  current  knowledge  of  these." 

**  Then,  there 's  the  finance  department,"  said  he ;  "  watch- 
ing the  rise  and  fall  of  the  exchanges,  buying  and  selling 
gold.     Herr  Ulrich,  in  that  office  with  the  blue  door,  could 


THE  OFFICE.  65T 

tell  you  it 's  not  to  be  picked  up  of  an  afternoon.  Perhaps 
you  might  as  well  begin  with  him ;  his  is  not  a  bad  school  to 
take  the  fine  edge  off  you." 

"  I  shall  do  whatever  you  advise  me." 

"I'll  speak  to  Herr  Ulrich,  then,"  said  he;  and  he  left 
me,  to  return  almost  immediately,  and  conduct  me  within  the 
precincts  of  the  blue  door. 

Herr  Ulrich  was  a  tall,  thin,  ascetic-looking  man,  with  his 
hair  brushed  rigidly  back  from  the  narrowest  head  I  ever 
saw.  His  whole  idea  of  life  was  the  office,  which  he  arrived 
at  by  daybreak,  and  never  left,  except  to  visit  the  Bourse, 
till  late  at  night.  He  disliked,  of  all  things,  new  faces  about 
him ;  and  it  was  a  piece  of  malice  on  the  cashier's  part  to 
bring  me  before  him. 

"  I  believed  I  had  explained  to  Herr  Ignaz  already,"  said 
he  to  the  cashier,   ''  that  I  am  not  a  schoolmaster." 

"  Well,  well,"  broke  in  the  other,  in  a  muffled  voice,  **  try 
the  lad.  He  may  not  be  so  incompetent.  They  tell  me  he 
has  had  some  education." 

Herr  Ulrich  raised  his  spectacles,  and  surveyed  me  from 
head  to  foot  for  some  seconds.  "You  have  been  in  the 
yard?"  said  he,  in  question. 

"  Yes,  sir." 

' '  And  is  counting  oaken  staves  the  first  step  to  learning 
foreign  exchanges,  think  you?" 

"  I  should  say  not,  sir." 

"  I  know  whose  scheme  this  is,  well  enough,"  muttered 
he.  "I  see  it  all.  That  will  do.  You  may  leave  us  to 
talk  together  alone,"  said  he  to  the  cashier.  "  Sit  down 
there,  lad  ;  there 's  your  own  famous  newspaper,  the  '  Times.' 
Make  me  a.  precis  of  the  money  article  as  it  touches  Austrian 
securities  and  Austrian  enterprises;  contrast  the  report 
there  given  with  what  that  French  paper  contains ;  and  don't 
leave  till  it  be  finished."  He  returned  to  his  high  stool  as  he 
spoke,  and  resumed  his  work.  On  the  table  before  me  lay  a 
mass  of  newspapers  in  different  languages ;  and  I  sat  down 
to  examine  them  with  the  very  vaguest  notion  of  what  was 
expected  of  me. 

Determined  to  do  something, — whatever  that  something 
might  be,  —  I  opened  the  "Times"  to  find  out  the  money 


558  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

article ;  but,  little  versed  in  journalism,  I  turned  from  page 
to  page  without  discovering  it.  At  last  I  thought  I  should 
find  it  by  carefully  scanning  the  columns ;  and  so  I  began 
at  the  top  and  read  the  various  headings,  which  happened  to 
be  those  of  the  trials  then  going  on.  There  was  a  cause  of 
salvage  on  the  part  of  the  owners  of  the  *' Lively  Jane ; '* 
there  was  a  disputed  ownership  of  certain  dock  warrants  for 
indigo,  a  breach  of  promise  case,  and  a  suit  for  damages  for 
injuries  incurred  on  the  rail.  None  of  these,  certainly,  were 
financial  articles.  At  the  head  of  the  next  column  I  read : 
' '  Court  of  Probate  and  Divorce,  —  Mr.  Spanks  moved  that 
the  decree  nisi,  in  the  suit  of  Cleremont  v.  Cleremont,  be 
made  absolute.  Motion  allowed.  The  damages  in  this  suit 
against  Sir  Roger  Norcott  have  been  fixed  at  eight  thousand 
five  hundred  pounds." 

From  these  lines  I  could  not  turn  my  eyes.  They  revealed 
nothing,  it  is  true,  but  what  I  knew  well  must  happen ;  but 
there  is  that  in  a  confirmation  of  a  fact  brought  suddenly 
before  us,  that  always  awakens  deep  reflection :  and  now  I 
brought  up  before  my  mind  my  poor  mother,  deserted  and 
forsaken,  and  my  father,  ruined  in  character,  and  perhaps 
in  fortune. 

I  had  made  repeated  attempts  to  find  out  my  mother's 
address,  but  all  my  letters  had  failed  to  reach  her.  Could 
there  be  any  chance  of  discovering  her  through  this  suit  ?  Was 
it  possible  that  she  might  have  intervened  in  any  way  in  it? 
And,  last  of  all,  would  this  lawj^er,  whose  name  appeared  in 
the  proceedings,  take  compassion  on  my  unhappy  condition, 
and  aid  me  to  discover  where  my  mother  was?  I  meditated 
long  over  all  this,  and  I  ended  by  convincing  myself  that 
there  are  few  people  in  the  world  who  are  not  well  pleased 
to  do  a  kind  thing  which  costs  little  in  the  doing ;  and  so  I 
resolved  I  would  write  to  Mr.  Spanks,  and  address  him  at 
the  court  he  practised  in.  I  could  not  help  feeling  that  it 
was  at  a  mere  straw  I  was  grasping;  but  nothing  more 
tangible  lay  within  my  reach.     I  wrote  thus:  — 

"  Sir,  —  I  am  the  son  and  only  child  of  Sir  Roger  and  Lady 
Norcott ;  and  seeing  that  you  have  lately  conducted  a  suit  against  my 
father,  I  ask  you,  as  a  great  favor,  to  let  me  know  where  my  mother 
is  now  living,  that  I  may  write  to  her.     I  know  that  I  am  taking  a 


THE  OFFICE.  659 

great  liberty  in  obtruding  this  request  upon  you ;  but  I  am  very 
friendless,  and  very  little  versed  in  worldly  knowledge.     Will  you 
let  both  these  deficiencies  plead  for  me  ?  and  let  me  sign  myself 
"  Your  grateful  servant, 

*'  DlGBY   NORCOTT. 

**  You  can  address  me  at  the  house  of  Hodnig  and  Oppovich,  Fiume, 
Austria,  where  I  am  living  as  a  clerk,  and  under  the  name  of  Digby 
Owen,  —  Owen  being  the  name  of  my  mother's  family." 

I  was  not  very  well  pleased  with  the  composition  of  this 
letter;  but  it  had  one  recommendation,  which  I  chiefly 
sought  for, —  it  was  short,  and  for  this  reason  I  hoped  it 
might  be  favorably  received.  I  read  it  over  and  over, 
each  time  seeing  some  new  fault,  or  some  omission  to  cor- 
rect; and  then  I  would  turn  again  to  the  newspaper,  and 
ponder  over  the  few  words  that  meant  so  much  and  yet 
revealed  so  little.  How  my  mother's  position  would  be 
affected  —  if  at  all — by  this  decision  I  could  not  tell. 
Indeed,  it  was  the  mere  accident  of  hearing  divorce  dis- 
cussed at  my  father's  table  that  enabled  me  to  know  what 
the  terms  of  the  law  implied.  And  thus  I  turned  from  my 
letter  to  the  newspaper,  and  back  again  from  the  newspaper 
to  my  letter,  so  engrossed  by  the  theme  that  I  forgot  where 
I  was,  and  utterly  forgot  all  about  that  difficult  task  Herr 
Ulrich  had  set  me.  Intense  thought  and  weariness  of  mind, 
aided  by  the  unbroken  stillness  of  the  place,  made  me  heavy 
and  drowsy.  From  poring  over  the  paper,  I  gradually  bent 
down  till  my  head  rested  on  it,  and  I  fell  sound  asleep. 

I  must  have  passed  hours  thus,  for  it  was  already  evening 
when  I  awoke.  Herr  Ulrich  was  about  to  leave  the  office, 
and  had  his  hat  on,  as  he  aroused  me. 

''It  is  supper- time,  youngster,"  said  he,  laying  his  hand 
on  my  shoulder.  ' '  Yes,  you  may  well  wonder  where  you 
are.     What  are  you  looking  for?" 

"I  thought,  sir,  I  had  written  a  letter  just  before  I  fell 
asleep.  I  was  writing  here."  And  I  turned  over  the  papers 
and  shook  them,  tossing  them  wildly  about,  to  discover  the 
letter,  but  in  vain.  It  was  not  there.  Could  it  have  been 
that  I  had  merely  composed  it  in  my  mind,  and  never  have 
committed  it  to  paper?    But  that  could  scarcely  be,  seeing 


^60  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

how  fresh  in  my  memory  were  all  the  doubts  and  hesitations 
that  had  beset  me. 

"  I  am  sure  I  wrote  a  letter  here,"  said  I,  trying  to  re- 
-call  each  circumstance  to  my  mind. 

"When  you  have  finished  dreaming,  lad,  I  will  lock  the 
door,"  said  he,  waiting  to  see  me  pass  out. 

"Forgive  me  one  moment,  sir,  only  one,"  cried  I,  wildly, 
scattering  the  papers  over  the  table.  "  It  is  of  consequence 
to  me —  what  I  have  written.'* 

"  That  is,  if  you  have  written  anything,"  said  he,  dryly. 

The  grave  tone  of  this  doubt  determined  the  conflict  in 
my  mind. 

"I  suppose  you  are  right,"  said  I ;  "it  was  a  dream."' 
And  I  arose  and  followed  him  out. 

As  I  reached  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  I  came  suddenly  on 
Herr  Ignaz  and  his  daughter.  It  was  a  common  thing 
for  her  to  come  and  accompany  him  home  at  the  end  of 
the  day's  work  ;  and  as  latterly  he  had  become  much  broken 
and  very  feeble,  she  scarcely  missed  a  day  in  this  attention. 
"  Oh,  here  he  is !  "  I  heard  her  say  as  I  came  up.  What  he 
replied  I  could  not  catch,  but  it  was  with  some  earnestness 
:she  rejoined, — 

"  Herr  von  Owen,  my  father  wishes  to  say  that  they  have 
mistaken  his  instructions  regarding  you  in  the  office.  He 
never  expected  you  could  at  once  possess  yourself  of  all  the 
details  of  a  varied  business ;  he  meant  that  you  should  go 
about  and  see  what  branch  you  would  like  to  attach  yourself 
to,  and  to  do  this  he  will  give  you  ample  time.  Take  a 
week;  take  two;  a  month,  if  you  like."  And  she  made  a 
little  gesture  of  friendly  adieu  with  her  hand,  and  passed  on. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

UNWISHED-FOR    PROMOTION. 

The  morniDg  after  this  brief  intimation  I  attached  myself  to 
that  department  of  the  house  whose  business  was  to  receive 
and  reply  to  telegraphic  messages.  I  took  that  group  of 
countries  whose  languages  I  knew,  and  addressed  myself  to 
my  task  in  right  earnest.  An  occupation  whose  chief  feature 
is  emergency  will  always  possess  a  certain  interest,  but 
beyond  this  there  was  not  anything  attractive  in  my  present 
pursuit.  A  peremptory  message  to  sell  this  or  buy  that,  to 
push  on  vigorously  with  a  certain  enterprise  or  to  suspend 
all  action  in  another,  would  perhaps  form  the  staple  of  a 
day's  work.  When  disasters  occurred,  too,  it  was  their 
monetary  feature  alone  was  recorded.  The  fire  that  con- 
sumed a  warehouse  was  told  with  reference  to  the  amount 
insured ;  the  shipwreck  was  related  by  incidents  that  bore 
on  the  lost  cargo,  and  the  damage  incurred.  Still  it  was 
less  monotonous  than  the  work  of  the  office,  and  I  had  a  cer- 
tain pride  in  converting  the  messages  —  sometimes  partly, 
sometimes  totally  unintelligible  —  into  language  that  could 
be  understood,  that  imparted  a  fair  share  of  ambition  to  my 
labor. 

My  duty  was  to  present  myself,  with  my  book  in  which  I 
had  entered  the  despatches,  each  evening,  at  supper-time,  at 
Herr  Ignaz's  house.  He  would  be  at  table  with  his  daughter 
when  I  arrived,  and  the  interview  would  pass  somewhat  in 
this  wise :  Herr  Oppovich  would  take  the  book  from  my 
hands  without  a  word  or  even  a  look  at  me,  and  the  Fraulein, 
with  a  gentle  bend  of  the  head,  but  without  the  faintest  show 
of  more  intimate  greeting,  would  acknowledge  me.  She 
would  continue  to  eat  as  I  stood  there,  as  unmindful  of  me 
as  though  I  were  a  servant.     Having  scanned  the  book  over, 


562  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

he  would  hand  it  across  to  his  daughter,  and  then  would 
ensue  a  few  words  in  whisper,  after  which  the  Fraulein  would 
write  opposite  each  message  some  word  of  reply  or  of  com- 
ment such  as,  "Already  provided  for,"  ''Further  details 
wanted,"  ''Too  late,"  or  such  like,  but  never  more  than  a 
few  words,  and  these  she  would  write  freely,  and  only  con- 
sulting herself.  The  old  man  —  whose  memory  failed  him 
more  and  more  every  day,  and  whose  general  debility  grew 
rapidly  —  did  no  more  than  glance  at  the  answers  and  nod 
an  acceptance  of  them.  In  giving  the  book  back  to  me,  she 
rarely  looked  up,  but  if  she  did  so,  and  if  her  eyes  met  mine, 
their  expression  was  cold  and  almost  defiant ;  and  thus,  with 
a  slight  bend  of  the  head,  I  would  be  dismissed. 

Nor  was  this  reception  the  less  chilling  that,  before  I  had 
well  closed  the  door,  they  would  be  in  full  conversation 
again,  showing  that  my  presence  it  was  which  had  inspired 
the  constraint  and  reserve.  These,  it  might  be  thought,  were 
not  very  proud  nor  blissful  moments  to  me,  and  yet  they 
formed  the  happiest  incident  of  my  day,  and  I  actually 
longed  for  the  hour,  as  might  a  lover  to  meet  his  mistress. 
To  gaze  at  will  upon  her  pale  and  beautiful  face,  to  watch 
the  sunlight  as  it  played  upon  her  golden  hair,  which  she 
wore  —  in  some  fashion,  perhaps,  peculiar  to  her  race  —  in 
heavy  masses  of  curls,  that  fell  over  her  back  and  shoulders ; 
her  hand,  too,  a  model  of  symmetry,  and  with  the  fingers 
rose-tipped,  like  the  goddesses  of  Homer,  affected  me  as  a 
spell ;  and  I  have  stood  there  unconsciously  staring  at  it  till 
warned  by  a  second  admonition  to  retire. 

Perhaps  the  solitude  in  which  I  lived  helped  to  make  me 
dwell  more  thoughtfully  on  this  daily-recurring  interview; 
for  I  went  nowhere,  I  associated  with  no  one,  I  dined  alone, 
and  my  one  brisk  walk  for  health  and  exercise  I  took  by 
myself.  When  evening  came,  and  the  other  clerks  fre- 
quented the  theatre,  I  went  home  to  read,  or  as  often  to  sit 
and  think. 

"  Sara  tells  me,"  said  the  old  man  one  day,  when  some 
rare  chance  had  brought  him  to  my  office,  —  "  Sara  tells  me 
that  you  are  suffering  from  over-confinement.  She  thinks 
you  look  pale  and  worn,  and  that  this  constant  work  i» 
telling  on  you." 


UNWISHED-FOR  PROMOTION.  663 

"  Far  from  it,  sir.  I  am  both  well  and  happy ;  and  if  I 
needed  to  be  made  happier,  this  thoughtful  kindness  would 
make  me  so." 

"Yes;  she  is  very  kind,  and  very  thoughtful  too;  but, 
as  well  as  these,  she  is  despotic,"  said  he,  with  a  faint  laugh ; 
''  and  so  she  has  decided  that  you  are  to  exchange  with  M. 
Marsac,  who  will  be  here  by  Saturday,  and  who  will  put  you 
up  to  all  the  details  of  his  walk.  He  buys  our  timber  for  ua 
in  Hungary  and  Transylvania ;  and  he,  too,  will  enjoy  a  little 
rest  from  constant  travel." 

''  I  don't  speak  Hungarian,  sir,"  began  I,  eager  to  offer  an 
opposition  to  the  plan. 

"  Sara  says  you  are  a  quick  learner,  and  will  soon  acquire 
it,  —  at  least,  enough  for  traffic." 

''  It  is  a  business,  too,  that  I  suspect  requires  much  insight 
into  the  people  and  their  ways." 

*'  You  can't  learn  them  younger,  lad  ;  and  as  all  those  we 
deal  with  are  old  clients  of  the  house,  you  will  not  be  much 
exposed  to  rogueries." 

"  But  if  I  make  mistakes,  sir?  If  I  involve  you  in  diffi- 
culty and  in  loss  ?  " 

*'  You  '11  repay  it  by  zeal,  lad,  and  by  devotion,  as  we  have 
seen  you  do  here." 

He  waved  his  hand  in  adieu,  and  left  me  to  my  own 
thoughts.  Very  sad  thoughts  they  were,  as  they  told  me 
of  separation  from  her  that  gave  the  whole  charm  to  my 
life.  Sara's  manner  to  me  had  been  so  markedly  cold  and 
distant  for  some  time  past,  so  unlike  what  it  had  been  at 
first,  that  I  could  not  help  feeling  that,  by  ordering  me 
away,  some  evidence  of  displeasure  was  to  be  detected. 
The  old  man  I  at  once  exculpated,  for  every  day  showed 
him  less  and  less  alive  to  the  business  of  '*the  House;" 
though,  from  habit,  he  persisted  in  coming  down  every 
morning  to  the  office,  and  believed  himself  the  guide  and 
director  of  all  that  went  on  there. 

I  puzzled  myself  long  to  think  what  I  could  have  done 
to  forfeit  her  favor.  I  had  never  in  the  slightest  degree 
passed  that  boundary  of  deference  that  I  was  told  she 
liked  to  exact  from  all  in  the  service  of  the  house.  I  had 
neglected  no  duty,  nor,  having  no  intimates  or  associates, 


664  THAT  BOY  OE  NORCOTT'S. 

had  I  given  opportunity  to  report  of  me  that  I  had  said 
this  or  that  of  my  employers.  I  scrutinized  every  act  of 
my  daily  life,  and  suggested  every  possible  and  impossible 
cause  for  this  coldness ;  but  without  approaching  a  reason 
at  all  probable.  While  I  thus  doubted  and  disputed  with 
myself,  the  evening  despatches  arrived,  and  among  them  a 
letter  addressed  to  myself.  It  bore  the  post-mark  of  the 
town  alone,  with  this  superscription,  "  Digby  Owen,  Esq., 
at  Messrs.  Oppovich's,  Fiume."    I  tore  it  open  and  read,  — 

"  The  address  you  wish  for  is, '  Lady  Norcott,  Sunday's  Well,  Cork, 
Ireland.' " 

The  writing  looked  an  English  hand,  and  the  language 
was  English.  There  was  no  date,  nor  any  signature. 
Could  it  have  been,  then,  that  I  had  folded  and  sealed 
and  sent  on  my  letter  —  that  letter  I  believed  I  had  never 
written  —  without  knowing  it,  and  that  the  lawyer  had 
sent  me  this  reply,  which,  though  long  delayed,  might 
have  been  postponed  till  he  had  obtained  the  tidings  it 
conveyed?  At  all  events,  I  had  got  my  dear  mother's 
address,  —  at  least  I  hoped  so.  This  point  I  resolved  to 
ascertain  at  once,  and  sat  down  to  write  to  her.  It  was  a 
very  flurried  note  I  composed,  though  I  did  my  very  best 
to  be  collected.  I  told  her  how  and  where  I  was,  and  by 
what  accident  of  fortune  I  had  come  here;  that  I  had 
reasonable  hopes  of  advancement,  and  even  now  had  a 
salary  which  was  larger  than  I  needed.  I  was  afraid  to 
say  much  of  what  I  wished  to  tell  her,  till  I  was  sure  my 
letter  would  reach  her;  and  I  entreated  her  to  write  to 
me  by  return  of  post,  were  it  but  a  line.  I  need  not  say 
how  many  loves  I  sent  her,  nor  what  longings  to  be  again 
beside  her,  to  hold  her  hand,  and  hear  her  voice,  and  call 
her  by  that  dearest  of  all  the  names  affection  cherishes. 
"I  am  going  from  this  in  a  few  days  into  Hungary," 
added  I;  "but  address  me  here,  and  it  shall  be  sent  after 
me." 

When  I  had  finished  my  letter,  I  again  turned  my  thoughts 
to  this  strange  communication,  so  abrupt  and  so  short. 
How  came  it  to  Fiume,  too?  Was  it  enclosed  in  some  other 
letter,  and  to  whom?     If  posted  in  Fiume,  why  not  written 


UNWISHED-FOR  PROMOTION.  565 

there  ?  Ay ;  but  by  whom  ?  Who  could  know  that  I  had 
wished  for  my  mother's  address?  It  was  a  secret  buried 
in  my  own  heart. 

I  suddenly  determined  I  would  ask  the  Fraulein  Sara  to 
aid  me  in  unravelling  this  mystery,  which,  of  course,  I  could 
do  without  disclosing  the  contents  of  the  note.  I  hurried 
off  to  the  house,  and  asked  if  she  would  permit  me  to  speak 
to  her. 

*' Yes.  The  Fraulein  was  going  out;  but  if  my  business 
was  brief,  she  would  see  me." 

She  was  in  bonnet  and  shawl  as  I  entered,  and  stood 
with  one  hand  on  a  table,  looking  very  calm  but  somewhat 
haughty. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  M.  Owen,"  said  she,  "if  I  say  that 
I  can  only  give  you  a  few  minutes,  and  will  not  ask  you 
even  to  sit  down.     If  it  be  a  matter  of  the  office  — " 

''  No,  Mademoiselle;   it  is  not  a  matter  of  the  office^" 

*' Then,  if  it  relate  to  your  change  of  occupation  — " 

"No,  Mademoiselle,  not  even  to  that.  It  is  a  purely 
personal  question.  I  have  got  a  letter,  with  a  Fiume  post- 
mark on  it,  but  without  the  writer's  name ;  and  I  am  curi- 
ous to  know  if  you  could  aid  me  to  discover  him.  Would 
you  look  at  the  hand  and  see  if  it  be  known  to  you  ?  " 

"Pray  excuse  me,  M.  Owen.  I  am  the  stupidest  of  all 
people  in  reading  riddles  or  solving  difficulties.  All  the 
help  I  can  give  you  is  to  say  how  I  treat  anonymous  letters 
myself.  If  they  be  simply  insults,  I  burn  them.  If  they 
relate  what  appear  to  be  matters  of  fact,  I  wait  and  watch 
for  them." 

Offended  by  the  whole  tone  of  her  manner,  I  bowed,  and 
moved  towards  the  door. 

"  Have  you  seen  M.  Marsac?     I  hear  he  has  arrived." 

"No,  Mademoiselle;    not  yet." 

"  When  you  have  conferred  and  consulted  with  him,  your 
instructions  are  all  prepared ;  and  I  suppose  you  are  ready 
to  start?" 

"I  shall  be,  Mademoiselle,  when  called  upon." 

"  I  will  say  good-bye,  then,"  said  she,  advancing  one 
step  towards  me,  evidently  intending  to  offer  me  her  hand ; 
but  I  replied  by  a  low,  very  low  bow,  and  retired. 


566  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTrS. 

I  thought  I  should  choke  as  I  went  down  the  stairs.  My 
throat  seemed  to  swell,  and  then  to  close  up ;  and  when  I 
gained  the  shelter  of  the  thick  trees,  I  threw  myself  down 
on  my  face  in  the  grass,  and  sobbed  as  if  my  heart  was 
breaking.  How  I  vowed  and  swore  that  I  would  tear  every 
recollection  of  her  from  my  mind,  and  never  think  more 
of  her,  and  how  her  image  ever  came  back  clearer  and 
brighter  and  more  beautiful  before  me  after  each  oath  I 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   MAN   WHO   TRAVELLED    FOR   OUR   HOUSE. 

As  I  sat  brooding  over  my  fire  that  same  evening,  my 
door  was  suddenly  opened,  and  a  large  burly  man,  loom- 
ing even  larger  from  an  immense  fur  pelisse  that  he  wore, 
entered.  His  first  care  was  to  divest  himself  of  a  tall 
Astracan  cap,  from  which  he  flung  off  some  snow-flakes, 
and  then  to  throw  off  his  pelisse,  stamping  the  snow  from 
his  great  boots,  which  reached  half-way  up  the  thigh. 

''You  see,"  cried  he,  at  last,  with  a  jovial  air,  —  "you 
see  I  come,  like  a  good  comrade,  and  make  myself  at  home 
at  once." 

''I  certainly  see  so  much,"  said  I,  dryly;  "but  whom 
have  I  the  honor  to  receive?" 

"You  have  the  honor  to  receive  Gustave  Maurice  de 
Marsac,  young  man,  a  gentleman  of  Dauphine,  who  now 
masquerades  in  the  character  of  first  traveller  for  the  re- 
spectable house  of  Hodnig  and  Oppovich." 

"  I  am  proud  to  make  your  acquaintance,  M.  de  Marsac," 
said  I,  offering  my  hand. 

"What  age  are  you?"  cried  he,  staring  fixedly  at  me. 
"You  can't  be  twenty?" 

"  No,  I  am  not  twenty." 

"  And  they  purpose  to  send  you  down  to  replace  me!" 
cried  he ;  and  he  threw  himself  back  in  his  chair,  and  shook 
with  laughter. 

"I  see  all  the  presumption;  but  I  can  only  say  it  was 
none  of  my  doing." 

"No,  no;  don't  say  presumption,"  said  he,  in  a  half- 
coaxing  tone.  "  But  I  may  say  it,  without  vanity,  it  is 
not  every  man's  gift  to  be  able  to  succeed  Gustave  de 
Marsac.     May  I  ask  for  a  cigar?     Thanks.     A  real  Cuban, 


568  THAT  BOY   OF  NORCOTT'S. 

I  verily  believe.  I  finished  m}^  tobacco  two  posts  from  this^ 
and  have  been  smoking  all  the  samples  —  pepper  and  hemp- 
seed  amongst  them  —  since  then." 

"  May  I  offer  you  something  to  eat?  " 

"  You  may,  if  you  accompany  it  with  something  to  drink. 
Would  you  believe  it,  Oppovich  and  his  daughter  were  at 
supper  when  I  arrived  to  report  myself ;  and  neither  of  them 
as  much  as  said,  Chevalier  —  I  mean  Mon.  de  Marsac  — 
won't  you  do  us  the  honor  to  join  us?  No.  Old  Ignaz 
went  on  with  his  meal,  —  cold  veal  and  a  potato  salad,  I 
think  it  was ;  and  the  fair  Sara  examined  my  posting-book 
to  see  I  had  made  no  delay  on  the  road ;  but  neither  offered 
me  even  the  courtesy  of  a  glass  of  wine.'* 

'*I  don't  suspect  it  was  from  any  want  of  hospitality,"  I 
began. 

*'  An  utter  want  of  everything,  mon  cher.  Want  of 
decency;  want  of  delicacy;  want  of  due  deference  to  a 
man  of  birth  and  blood.  I  see  you  are  sending  your  ser- 
vant out.  Now,  I  beg,  don't  make  a  stranger  —  don't 
make  what  we  call  a  '  Prince  Russe  '  of  me.  A  little  quiet 
supper,  and  something  to  wash  it  down;  good  fellowship 
will  do  the  rest.     May  I  give  your  man  the  orders  ?  " 

''  You  will  confer  a  great  favor  on  me,"  said  I. 

He  took  my  servant  apart,  and  whispered  a  few  minutes 
with  him  at  the  window.  "  Try  Kleptomitz  first,"  said 
he  aloud,  as  the  man  was  leaving ;  ' '  and  mind  you  say 
M.  Marsac  sent  you.  Smart  '  bursche '  you  've  got  there. 
If  you  don't  take  him  with  you,  hand  him  over  to  me.'^ 

"  I  will  do  so,"  said  I ;  ''  and  am  happy  to  have  secured 
him  a  good  master." 

''You'll  not  know  him  when  you  pass  through  Fiume 
again.  I  believe  there's  not  my  equal  in  Europe  to  drill 
a  servant.  Give  me  a  Chinese,  an  Esquimau ;  give  me  a 
Hottentot,  and  in  six  months  you  shall  see  him  announce 
a  visitor,  deliver  a  letter,  wait  at  table,  or  serve  coffee, 
with  the  quiet  dignity  and  the  impassive  steadiness  of  the 
most  accomplished  lackey.  The  three  servants  of  Fiume 
were  made  by  me,  and  their  fortunes  also.  One  has  now 
the  chief  restaurant  at  Rome,  in  the  Piazza  di  Spagna ;  the 
other  is  manager  of  the  '  Iron  Crown  Hotel,'  at  Zurich ;  he 


THE  MAN  WHO  TRAVELLED  FOR  OUR  HOUSE.   569 

wished  to  have  it  called  the  '  Arms  of  Marsac,'  but  I  for- 
bade him.  I  said,  '  No,  Pierre,  no.  The  De  Marsacs  are 
now  travelling  incog.'  Like  the  Tavannes  and  the  Rohans, 
we  have  to  wait  and  bide  our  time.  Louis  Napoleon  is  not 
immortal.     Do  you  think  he  is?  " 

*'  I  have  no  reason  to  think  so." 

''Well,  well,  you  are  too  young  to  take  interest  in  poli- 
tics ;  not  but  that  /  did  at  fourteen :  I  conspired  at  four- 
teen !  I  will  show  you  a  stiletto  Mazzini  gave  me  on  my 
birthday ;  and  the  motto  on  the  blade  was,  '  Au  service  du 
Roi.'  Ah!  you  are  surprised  at  what  I  tell  you.  I  hear 
you  say  to  yourself,  '  How  the  devil  did  he  come  to  this 
place  ?  what  led  him  to  Fiume  ?  *  A  long  story  that ;  a  story 
poor  old  Dumas  would  give  one  of  his  eyes  for.  There  's 
more  adventure,  more  scrapes  by  villany,  dangers  and  death- 
blows generally,  in  the  last  twenty-two  years  of  my  life  — 
I  am  now  thirty-six  —  than  in  all  the  Monte  Cristos  that 
ever  were  written.  I  will  take  the  liberty  to  put  another 
log  on  your  fire.  What  do  you  say  if  we  lay  the  cloth?  It 
will  expedite  matters  a  little." 

"  With  all  my  heart.  Here  are  all  my  household  goods," 
said  I,  opening  a  little  press  in  the  wall. 

"  And  not  to  be  despised,  by  any  means.  Show  me  what 
a  man  drinks  out  of,  and  I  '11  tell  you  what  he  drinks. 
When  a  man  has  got  thin  glasses  like  these,  —  a  la  Mousse- 
line^  as  we  say,  — his  tipple  is  Bordeaux." 

"  I  confess  the  weakness,"  said  I,  laughing. 

''It  is  my  own  infirmity  too/'  said  he,  sighing.  "My 
theory  is,  plurality  of  wines  is  as  much  a  mistake  as 
plurality  of  wives.  Coquette,  if  you  will,  with  fifty,  but 
give  your  affections  to  one.  If  I  am  anything,  I  am  moral. 
What  can  keep  your  fellow  so  long  ?  I  gave  him  but  two 
commissions." 

"Perhaps  the  shops  were  closed  at  this  hour." 

"If  they  were,  sir,"  said  he,  pompously,  "at  the  word 
'  Marsac '  they  would  open.  Ha !  what  do  I  see  here  ?  —  a 
piano?  Am  I  at  liberty  to  open  it?  "  And  without  waiting 
for  a  reply,  he  sat  down,  and  ran  his '  hands  over  the  keys 
with  a  masterly  facility.  As  he  flew  over  the  octaves,  and 
struck  chords  of  splendid  harmony,  I  could  not  help  feeling 


570  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

an  amount  of  credit  in  all  his  boastful  declarations  just 
from  this  one  trait  of  real  power  about  him. 

"I  see  you  are  a  rare  musician,"  said  I. 

"And  it  is  what  I  know  least,"  said  he;  "though  Flotow 
said  one  day,  *  If  that  rascal  De  Marsac  takes  to  writing 
operas,  I'll  never  compose  another.*  But  here  comes  the 
.supper;"  and  as  he  spoke  my  servant  entered  with  a  small 
basket  with  six  bottles  in  it ;  two  waiters  following  him, 
bearing  a  good-sized  tin  box,  with  a  charcoal  fire  beneath. 

"Well  and  perfectly  done,"  exclaimed  my  guest,  as  he 
aided  them  to  place  the  soup  on  the  table,  and  to  dispose 
some  hors  d^ceuvre  of  anchovies,  caviare,  ham,  and  fresh 
butter  on  the  board.  "I  am  sorry  we  have  no  flowers.  I 
love  a  bouquet.  A  few  camellias  for  color,  and  some  violets 
for  odor.  They  relieve  the  grossness  of  the  material  enjoy- 
ments ;  they  poetize  the  meal ;  and  if  you  have  no  women  at 
table,  mon  cher^  be  sure  to  have  flowers:  not  that  I  object 
to  both  together.  There,  now,  is  our  little  bill  of  fare,  —  a 
white  soup,  a  devilled  mackerel,  some  truffles,  with  butter, 
and  a  capon  with  stewed  mushrooms.  Oysters  there  are 
none,  not  even  those  native  shrimps  they  call  scampi ;  but 
the  wine  will  compensate  for  much:  the  wine  is  Roediger; 
champagne,  with  a  faint  suspicion  of  dryness.  And  as  he 
has  brought  ice,  we  '11  attack  that  Bordeaux  you  spoke  of 
till  the  other  be  cool  enough  for  drinking." 

As  he  rattled  on  thus,  it  was  not  very  easy  for  me  to 
assure  myself  whether  I  was  host  or  guest;  but  as  I  saw 
that  this  consideration  did  not  distress  him,  I  resolved  it 
; should  not  weigh  heavily  on  me. 

"  I  ordered  a  compote  of  peaches  with  maraschino.  Go 
after  them  and  say  it  has  been  forgotten."  And  now,  as 
he  dismissed  my  servant  on  this  errand,  he  sat  down  and 
served  the  soup,  doing  the  honors  of  the  board  in  all  form. 
"You  are  called  —  " 

"Digby  is  my  Christian  name,"  interrupted  I,  "and  you 
can  call  me  by  it." 

"Digby,  I  drink  to  your  health;  and  if  the  wine  had  been 
only  a  little  warmer,  I  'd  say  I  could  not  wish  to  do  so  in 
a  more  generous  fluid.  No  fellow  of  your  age  knows  how 
to   air   his   Bordeaux;   hot   flannels   to   the  caraffe   before 


THE  MAN  WHO  TRAVELLED  FOR  OUR  HOUSE.   571 

decanting  are  all  that  is  necessary,  and  let  your  glasses 
also  be  slightly  warmed.  To  sip  such  claret  as  this,  and 
then  turn  one's  eyes  to  that  champagne  yonder  in  the  ice- 
pail,  is  like  the  sensation  of  a  man  who  in  his  honeymoon 
fancies  how  happy  he  will  be  one  of  these  days,  en  secondes 
noces.  Don't  you  feel  a  sense  of  triumphant  enjoyment  at 
this  moment?  Is  there  not  something  at  your  heart  that 
says,  *  Hodnig  and  Oppovich,  I  despise  you!  To  the  re- 
gions I  soar  in  you  cannot  come !  To  the  blue  ether  I  have 
risen,  your  very  vision  cannot  reach ! '  Eh,  boy !  tell  me 
this." 

"No;  I  don't  think  you  have  rightly  measured  my  feel- 
ings. On  the  whole,  I  rather  suspect  I  bear  a  very  good 
will  to  these  same  people  who  have  enabled  me  to  have 
these  comforts." 

"You  pretend,  then,  to  what  they  call  gratitude?" 

"I  have  that  weakness." 

"I  could  as  soon  believe  in  the  heathen  mythology!  I 
like  the  man  who  is  kind  to  me  while  he  is  doing  the  kind- 
ness, and  I  could,  if  occasion  served,  be  kind  to  him  in 
turn ;  but  to  say  that  I  could  retain  such  a  memory  of  the 
service  after  years  that  it  would  renew  in  me  the  first  pleas- 
ant sensations  it  created,  and  with  these  sensations  the  good- 
will to  requite  them,  is  downright  rubbish.  You  might  as 
well  tell  me  that  I  could  get  drunk  simply  by  remembering 
the  orgie  I  assisted  at  ten  years  ago." 

"I  protest  against  your  sentiment  and  your  logic  too." 

"Then  we  won't  dispute  the  matter.  We  '11  talk  of 
something  we  can  agree  upon.     Let  us  abuse  Sara." 

"If  you  do,  you'll  choose  some  other  place  to  do 
it." 

"What,  do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  can  stand  the 
haughty  airs  and  proud  pretensions  of  the  young  Jewess  ?  " 

"I  mean  to  tell  you  that  I  know  nothing  of  the  Fraulein 
Oppovich  but  what  is  amiable  and  good." 

"What  do  I  care  for  amiable  and  good?  I  want  a  girl 
to  be  graceful,  well-mannered,  pleasing,  lively  to  talk,  and 
eager  to  listen.  There,  now,  don't  get  purple  about  the 
cheeks,  and  flash  at  me  such  fiery  looks.  Here  's  the  cham- 
pagne, and  we  '11  drink  a  bumper  to  her." 


572  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

*'Take  some  other  name  for  your  toast,  or  I  '11  fling  your 
bottle  out  of  the  window.*' 

.  "You  will,  will  you!"  said  he,  setting  down  his  glass, 
and  measuring  me  from  head  to  foot. 

"I  swear  it." 

"I  like  that  spirit,  Digby;  I'll  be  shot  if  I  don't,"  said 
he,  taking  my  hand,  which  I  did  not  give  very  willingly. 
"You  are  just  what  I  was  some  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago, 
—  warm,  impulsive,  and  headstrong.  It's  the  world  — 
that  vile  old  mill,  the  world  —  grinds  that  generous  nature 
out  of  one!  I  declare  I  don't  believe  that  a  spark  of  real 
trustfulness  survives  a  man's  first  moustaches,  —  and  yours 
are  very  faint,  very  faint  indeed;  there's  a  suspicion  of 
smut  on  the  upper  lip,  and  some  small  capillary  flourishes 
along  your  cheek.  That  wine  is  too  sweet.  I  '11  return  to 
the  Bordeaux." 

"  I  grieve  to  say  I  have  no  more  than  that  bottle  of  it.  It 
was  some  I  bought  when  I  was  ill  and  threatened  with 
ague." 

"What  profanation!  anything  would  be  good  enough  for 
ague.  It  is  in  a  man's  days  of  vigorous  health  he  merits 
cherishing.  Let  us  console  ourselves  with  Roediger.  Now, 
boy,"  said  he,  as  he  cleared  off  a  bumper  from  a  large 
goblet,  "I'll  give  you  some  hints  for  your  future,  far  more 
precious  than  this  wine,  good  as  it  is.  Gustave  de  Marsac, 
like  Homer's  hero,  can  give  gold  for  brass,  and  instead  of 
wine  he  will  give  you  wisdom.  First  of  all  for  a  word  of 
warning:  don't  fall  in  love  with  Sara.  It's  the  popular 
error  down  here  to  do  so,  but  it 's  a  cruel  mistake.  That 
fellow  that  has  the  hemp-trade  here,  —  what 's  his  name,  — 
the  vulgar  dog  that  wears  mutton-chop  whiskers,  and  fancies 
he  's  English  because  he  gets  his  coats  from  London?  I  '11 
remember  his  name  presently,  —  he  has  all  his  life  been 
proposing  for  Sara,  and  begging  off  —  as  matters  go  ill  or 
well  with  the  House  of  Oppovich;  and  as  he  is  a  shrewd 
fellow  in  business,  all  the  young  men  here  think  they  ought 
to  '  go  in  '  for  Sara  too." 

I  should  say  here  that,  however  distasteful  to  me  this 
talk,  and  however  willingly  I  would  have  repressed  it,  it 
was  totally  out  of  my  power  to  arrest  the  flow  of  words 


THE  MAN  WHO  TRAVELLED  FOR  OUR  HOUSE.   573 

which  with  the  force  of  a  swollen  torrent  came  from  him. 
He  drank  freely,  too,  large  goblets  of  champagne  as  he 
talked,  and  to  this,  I  am  obliged  to  own,  I  looked  as  my 
last  hope  of  being  rid  of  him.  I  placed  every  bottle  I  pos- 
sessed on  the  table,  and,  lighting  my  cigar,  resigned  myself, 
with  what  patience  I  could,  to  the  result. 

"Am  I  keeping  you  up,  my  dear  Digby?"  cried  he,  at 
last,  after  a  burst  of  abuse  on  Fiume  and  all  it  contained 
that  lasted  about  half  an  hour. 

"I  seldom  sit  up  so  late,"  was  my  cautious  reply;  "but 
I  must  own  I  have  seldom  such  a  good  excuse." 

"You  hit  it,  boy;  that  was  well  and  truly  spoken.  As 
a  talker  of  the  highest  order  of  talk,  I  yield  to  no  man 
in  Europe.  Do  you  remember  Duvergier  saying  in  the 
Chambre,  as  an  apology  for  being  late,  '  I  dined  with 
De  Marsac  *  ?  " 

"I  cannot  say  I  remember  that." 

"How  could  you?  You  were  an  infant  at  the  time." 
Away  he  went  after  this  into  reminiscences  of  political  life, 
—  how  deep  he  was  in  that  Spanish  marriage  question,  and 
how  it  caused  a  breach,  —  an  irreparable  breach  between 
Guizot  and  himself,  when  that  woman,  "you  know  whom  I 
mean,  let  out  the  secret  to  Bulwer.  Of  course  I  ought  not 
to  have  confided  it  to  her.  I  know  all  that  as  well  as  you 
can  tell  it  me,  but  who  is  wise,  who  is  guarded,  who  is 
self-possessed  at  all  times?" 

Not  entirely  trustful  of  what  he  was  telling  me,  and  little 
interested  in  it  besides,  I  brought  him  back  to  Fiume,  and 
to  the  business  that  was  now  about  to  be  confided  to  me. 

"Ah,  very  true;  you  want  your  instructions.  You  shall 
have  them,  not  that  you  '11  need  them  long,  mon  cher.  Six 
months  —  what  am  I  saying  ?  —  three  will  see  it  all  up  with 
Hodnig  and  Oppovich." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  cried  I,  eagerly. 

"Just  simply  what  I  say." 

It  was  not  very  easy  for  me  to  follow  him  here,  but  I 
could  gather,  amidst  a  confused  mass  of  self-glorification, 
prediction,  and  lamentation  over  warnings  disregarded,  and 
such  like,  that  the  great  Jew  house  of  "Nathanheimer  "  of 
Paris  was  the  real  head  of  the  firm  of  Hodnig  and  Oppovich. 


574  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"  The  Nathanheimers  own  all  Europe  and  a  very  consid- 
erable share  of  America,"  burst  he  out.  "You  hear  of  a 
great  wine-house  at  Xeres,  or  a  great  corn-merchant  at 
Odessa,  or  a  great  tallow-exporter  at  Riga.  It 's  all  Nathan- 
heimer!  If  a  man  prospers  and  shows  that  he  has  skill  in 
business,  they  '11  stand  by  him,  even  to  millions.  If  he 
blunders,  they  sweep  him  away,  as  I  brush  away  that  cork. 
There  must  be  no  failures  with  them.     That 's  their  creed." 

He  proceeded  to  explain  how  these  great  potentates  of 
finance  and  trade  had  agencies  in  every  great  centre  of 
Europe,  who  reported  to  them  everything  that  went  on,  who> 
flourished,  and  who  foundered;  how,  when  enterprises  that 
promised  well  presented  themselves,  Nathanheimer  would 
advance  any  sum,  no  matter  how  great,  that  was  wanted. 
If  a  country  needed  a  railroad,  if  a  city  required  a  boule- 
vard, if  a  seaport  wanted  a  dock,  they  were  ready  to  furnish 
each  and  all  of  them.  The  conditions,  too,  were  never 
unfair,  never  ungenerous,  but  still  they  bargained  always 
for  something  besides  money.  They  desired  that  this  man 
would  aid  such  a  project  here,  or  oppose  that  other  there. 
Their  interests  were  so  various  and  widespread  that  they 
needed  political  power  everywhere,  and  they  had  it. 

One  offence  they  never  pardoned,  never  condoned,  which 
was  any,  the  slightest,  insubordination  amongst  those  they 
supported  and  maintained.  Marsac  ran  over  a  catalogue 
of  those  they  had  ruined  in  London,  Amsterdam,  Paris, 
Frankfort,  and  Vienna,  simply  because  they  had  attempted 
to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  serfdom  imposed  upon 
them.  Let  one  of  the  subordinate  firms  branch  out  into  an 
enterprise  unauthorized  by  the  great  house,  and  straight- 
way their  acceptances  become  dishonored,  and  their  credit 
assailed.  In  one  word,  he  made  it  appear  that  from  one  end 
of  Europe  to  the  other  the  whole  financial  system  was  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  crafty  men  of  immense  wealth,  who 
unthroned  dynasties,  and  controlled  the  fate  of  nations,  with 
a  word. 

He  went  on  to  show  that  Oppovich  had  somehow  fallen 
into  disgrace  with  these  mighty  patrons.  "  Some  say  that 
he  is  too  old  and  too  feeble  for  business,  and  hands  over  U> 
Sara  details  that  she  is  quite  unequal  to  deal  with;  some 


THE  MAN  WHO  TRAVELLED  FOR  OUR  HOUSE.   575 

aver  that  he  has  speculated  without  sanction,  and  is  in- 
triguing with  Greek  democrats;  others  declare  that  he 
has  been  merely  unfortunate;  at  all  events,  his  hour  ha& 
struck.  Mind  my  words,  three  months  hence  they  '11  not. 
have  Nathanheimer's  agency  in  their  house,  and  I  suspect 
you  '11  see  our  friend  Bettmeyer  will  succeed  to  that  rich 
inheritance." 

Rambling  on,  now  talking  with  a  vagueness  that  savored 
of  imbecility,  now  speaking  with  a  purposelike  acuteness  and 
power  that  brought  conviction,  he  sat  till  daybreak,  drink- 
ing freely  all  the  time,  and  at  last  so  overwhelming  me  with 
strange  revelations  that  I  was  often  at  a  loss  to  know 
whether  it  was  he  that  was  confounding  me,  or  that  I  my- 
self had  lost  all  control  of  right  reason  and  judgment. 

"You're  dead  beat,  my  poor  fellow,"  said  he  at  last, 
"and  it's  your  own  fault.  You've  been  drinking  nothing 
but  water  these  last  two  hours.  Go  off  to  bed  now,  and 
leave  me  to  finish  this  bottle.  After  that  I  '11  have  a  plunge 
off  the  end  of  the  mole,  cold  enough  it  will  be,  but  no  ice, 
and  you  '11  find  me  here  at  ten  o'clock  with  a  breakfast 
appetite  that  will  astonish  you." 

I  took  him  at  his  word,  and  said  "Good-night." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

MY   INSTRUCTIONS. 

My  friend  did  not  keep  his  self-made  appointment  with  me 
at  breakfast,  nor  did  I  see  him  for  two  days,  when  we  met 
in  the  street. 

'*I  have  gone  over  to  the  enemy,"  said  he;  "I  have  taken 
an  engagement  with  Bettmeyer:  six  thousand  florins  and 
all  expenses,  —  silver  florins,  mon  cher ;  and  if  you  're 
wise,"  added  he  in  a  whisper,  "you  '11  follow  my  lead.  Shall 
I  say  a  word  for  you?  " 

I  thanked  him  coldly,  and  declined  the  offer. 

*'A11  right;  stick  to  gratitude,  and  you'll  see  where  it 
will  land  you,"  said  he,  gayly.  "I've  sent  you  half  a 
dozen  letters  to  friends  of  mine  up  yonder;"  and  he  pointed 
towards  the  North.  "  You  '11  find  Hunyadi  an  excellent 
fellow,  and  the  Countess  charming;  don't  make  love  to  her, 
though,  for  Tassilo  is  a  regular  Othello.  As  for  the  Erdodis, 
I  only  wish  I  was  going  there,  instead  of  you ;  —  such  pheas- 
ants, such  women,  such  Tokay,  their  own  vintage!  Once 
you  're  down  in  Transylvania,  write  me  word  whom  you  'd 
like  to  know.  They  're  all  dear  friends  of  mine.  By  the 
way,  don't  make  any  blunder  about  that  Hunyadi  contract. 
The  people  here  will  want  you  to  break  it,  — don't,  on  any 
account.  It's  the  finest  bargain  ever  was  made;  splendid 
timber,  magnificent  bark,  and  the  cuttings  alone  worth  all 
the  money." 

He  rattled  out  this  with  his  own  headlong  speed,  and  was 
gone  before  I  well  knew  I  had  seen  him. 

That  evening  I  was  ordered  to  Herr  Oppovich's  house  to 
receive  my  last  instructions.  The  old  man  was  asleep  on  a 
sofa,  as  I  entered,  and  Sara  seated  at  a  table  by  the  fire, 
deeply  engaged  in  accounts. 


MY  INSTRUCTIONS.  677 

**Sit  down,  Herr  Owen,"  —  she  had  ceased  to  call  me  Von 
Owen,  —  "and  I  will  speak  to  you  in  a  minute." 

I  was  not  impatient  at  the  delay,  for  I  had  time  to  gaze 
at  her  silken  hair,  and  her  faultless  profile,  and  the  beautiful 
outline  of  her  figure,  as,  leaning  her  head  on  her  hand,  she 
bent  over  the  table. 

"I  cannot  make  this  come  right,  — are  you  clever  at  fig- 
ures ?  "  asked  she. 

^'I  cannot  say  it  is  my  gift,  but  I  will  do  my  best  to  aid 
you."  And  now  we  were  seated  side  by  side,  poring  over 
the  same  page ;  and  as  she  had  placed  one  taper  finger  next 
the  column  of  figures,  I  did  so  likewise,  thinking  far  less 
of  the  arithmetic  than  of  the  chance  of  touching  her  hand 
with  mine. 

"These  figures  are  somewhat  confusing,"  she  said.  "Let 
us  begin  at  the  top,  —  fourteen  hundred  and  six  hundred, 
make  two  thousand,  and  twelve  hundred,  three  thousand  two 
hundred,  —  now  is  this  a  seven  or  a  three?  " 

"I'd  say  a  three." 

"I  've  called  it  a  seven,  because  M.  Marsac  usually  writes 
liis  sevens  in  this  way." 

"These  are  De  Marsac's,  then?"  asked  I. 

"And  why  '  De,'  may  I  ask?  "  said  she,  quickly;  "why 
not  Marsac,  as  I  called  him  r  " 

"I  took  his  name  as  he  gave  it  me." 

"You  know  him,  then?  Oh,  I  had  forgotten,  — he  called 
on  you  the  night  he  came.     Have  you  seen  him  since  ?  " 

"Only  passingly,  in  the  street." 

"Had  he  time  to  tell  you  that  he  has  been  dismissed?  " 

"Yes;  he  said  he  was  now  in  Mr.  Bettmeyer's  oflace." 

"Shall  I  tell  you  why?"  She  stopped,  and  her  cheek 
became  crimson,  while  her  eyes  sparkled  with  an  angry  fire 
that  actually  startled  me.  "But  let  us  finish  this.  Where 
were  we?  "  She  now  leaned  her  head  down  upon  her  hands, 
and  seemed  overcome  by  her  emotion.  When  she  looked 
up  again,  her  face  was  perfectly  pale,  and  her  eyes  sad  and 
weariful.  "I  am  afraid  we  shall  wake  him,"  said  she,  look- 
ing towards  her  father;  "come  into  this  room  here.  So 
this  man  has  been  talking  of  us  ?  "  cried  she,  as  soon  as  we 
had  passed  into  the  adjoining  room.    "Has  he  told  you  how 

37 


578  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

he  has  requited  all  my  father's  kindness?  how  he  has  repaid 
his  trustfulness  and  faith  in  him?  Speak  freely  if  you 
wish  me  to  regard  you  as  a  friend." 

''I  would  that  you  might,  Fraulein.  There  is  no  name  I 
would  do  so  much  to  win." 

''But  you  are  a  gentleman,  and  with  noble  blood.  Could 
you  stoop  to  be  the  friend  of  —  "  Here  she  hesitated,  and, 
after  an  effort,  added,  "  A  Jew  ?  " 

"Try  me,  prove  me,"  said  I,  stooping  till  my  lips- 
touched  her  hand. 

She  did  not  withdraw  her  hand,  but  left  it  in  mine,  as  I 
pressed  it  again  and  again  to  my  lips. 

"He  told  you,  then,"  said  she,  in  a  half-whisper,  "that 
our  house  was  on  the  brink  of  ruin ;  that  in  a  few  weeks,  or 
even  less,  my  father  would  not  face  the  exchange,  —  did  he 
not  say  this  ?  " 

"I  will  tell  you  all,"  said  I,  "for  I  know  you  will  forgive 
me  when  I  repeat  what  will  offend  you  to  hear,  but  what  is 
safer  you  should  hear."  And,  in  the  fewest  words  T  could, 
I  related  what  Marsac  had  told  me  of  the  house  and  its 
difficulties.  When  I  came  to  that  part  which  represented 
Oppovich  as  the  mere  agent  of  the  great  Parisian  banker, 
—  whose  name  I  was  not  quite  sure  of,  —  I  faltered  and 
hesitated. 

"Go  on,"  said  she,  gently.  "He  told  you  that  Baron 
Nathanheimer  was  about  to  withdraw  his  protection  from 
us?" 

I  slightly  bent  my  head  in  affirmation. 

"But  did  he  say  why?" 

"Something  there  was  of  rash  enterprise,  of  speculation 
unauthorized  —  of  —  " 

"Of  an  old  man  with  failing  faculties,"  said  she,  in  the 
same  low  tone ;  "  and  of  a  young  girl,  little  versed  in  busi- 
ness, but  self-confident  and  presumptuous  enough  to  think 
herself  equal  to  supply  his  place.  I  have  no  doubt  he  was 
very  frank  on  this  head.  He  wrote  to  Baroii  Elias,  who 
sent  me  his  letter,  —  the  letter  he  wrote  of  us  while  eat- 
ing our  bread.     It  was  not  handsome  of  him,  —  was  it, 


sirr 


v» 


I  can  give  no  idea,  not  the  faintest,  of  the  way  she  said 


MY  INSTRUCTIONS.  579 

these  few  words,  nor  of  the  ineffable  scorn  of  her  look, 
while  her  voice  remained  calm  and  gentle  as  ever. 

"No;  it  was  not  handsome." 

She  nodded  to  me  to  proceed,  and  I  continued,  — 

"I  have  told  you  nearly  everything;  for  of  himself  and 
his  boastfulness  —  " 

"Oh!  do  not  tell  me  of  that.  I  am  in  no  laughing  mood, 
and  I  would  not  like  to  hear  of  it.  What  did  he  say  of  the 
Hunyadi  affair?" 

"  Nothing,  or  next  to  nothing.  He  offered  me  letters  of 
introduction  to  Count  Hunyadi ;  but  beyond  that  there  was 
no  mention  of  him." 

She  arose  as  I  said  this,  and  walked  slowly  up  and  down 
the  room.  I  saw  she  was  deep  in  thought,  and  was  careful 
not  to  disturb  or  distract  her.  At  last  she  opened  a  writing- 
desk,  and  took  out  a  roll  of  papers  fastened  by  a  tape. 

"These,"  said  she,  "you  will  take  with  you,  and  carefully 
read  over.  They  are  the  records  of  a  transaction  that  is 
now  involving  us  in  great  trouble,  and  which  may  prove 
more  than  trouble.  M.  Marsac  has  been  induced  —  how, 
we  shall  not  stop  to  inquire  —  to  contract  for  the  purchase  of 
an  extensive  wood  belonging  to  Graf  Hunyadi;  the  price, 
half  a  million  of  francs.  We  delayed  to  ratify  an  agree- 
ment of  such  moment,  until  more  fully  assured  of  the  value 
of  the  timber;  and  while  we  deliberated  on  the  choice  of 
the  person  to  send  down  to  Hungary,  we  have  received 
from  our  correspondent  at  Vienna  certain  bills  for  accept- 
ance in  payment  of  this  purchase.  You  follow  me,  don't 
you?" 

"Yes.  As  I  understand  it,  the  bargain  was  assumed  to 
be  ratified?" 

"Just  so." 

She  paused;  and,  after  a  slight  struggle  with  herself, 
went  on,  — 

"  The  contract,  legally  drawn  up  and  complete  in  every 
way,  was  signed;  not,  however,  by  my  father,  but  by  my 
brother.  You  have  heard,  perhaps,  that  I  have  a  brother. 
Bad  companionship  and  a  yielding  disposition  have  led 
him  into  evil,  and  for  some  years  we  have  not  seen  him. 
Much  misfortune  has  befallen  him;  but  none  greater,  per- 


580  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

haps,  than  his  meeting  with  Marsac;  for,  though  Adolf  has 
done  many  things,  he  would  not  have  gone  thus  far  without 
the  promptings  of  this  bad  man." 

"  Was  it  his  own  name  he  wrote  ?  "  asked  I. 

"No;  it  was  my  father's,"  and  she  faltered  at  the  word; 
and  as  she  spoke  it,  her  head  fell  heavily  forward,  and  she 
covered  her  face  with  her  hands. 

She  rallied,  however,  quickly,  and  went  on.  "  We  now 
know  that  the  timber  is  not  worth  one-fourth  of  this  large 
sum.  Baron  Elias  himself  has  seen  it,  and  declares  that  we 
have  been  duped  or  —  worse.  He  insists  that  we  rescind 
the  contract,  or  accept  all  its  consequences.  The  one  is 
hopeless,  — the  other  ruin.  Meanwhile,  the  Baron  suspends 
farther  relations  with  us,  and  heavy  acceptances  of  ours  will 
soon  press  for  payment.  I  must  not  go  into  this,"  said  she, 
hurriedly.  "  You  are  very  young  to  charge  with  such  a 
mission ;  but  I  have  great  faith  in  your  loyalty.  You  will 
not  wrong  our  trust?" 

"That  I  will  not." 

"  You  will  go  to  Graf  Hunyadi,  and  speak  with  him.  If 
he  be  —  as  many  of  his  countrymen  are  —  a  man  of  high 
and  generous  feeling,  he  will  not  bring  ruin  upon  us,  when 
our  only  alternative  would  be  to  denounce  our  own.  You 
are  very  young;  but  you  have  habits  of  the  world  and 
society.  Nay,  —  I  am  not  seeking  to  learn  a  secret;  but 
you  know  enough  to  make  you  companionable  and  accept- 
able, where  any  others  in  our  employ  would  be  inadmissible. 
At  all  events,  you  will  soon  see  the  sort  of  man  we  have  to 
deal  with,  and  you  will  report  to  me  at  once." 

' '  I  am  not  to  tell  him  how  this  signature  has  been  ob- 
tained?" asked  I,  awaiting  the  reply. 

"That  would  be  to  denounce  the  contract  at  once,"  cried 
she,  as  though  this  thought  had  for  the  first  time  struck  her. 
"  You  know  the  penalty  of  a  forgery  here.  It  is  the  galleys 
for  life.  He  must  be  saved  at  all  events.  Don't  you  see," 
cried  she,  eagerly,  "I  can  give  you  no  instructions.  I  have 
none  to  give.  When  I  say  I  trust  you,  —  I  have  told  you 
all." 

' '  Has  Herr  Ignaz  not  said  how  he  would  wish  me  to 
act?" 


MY  INSTRUCTIONS.  581 

"My  father  knows  nothing  of  it  all!  Nothing.  You 
have  seen  him,  and  you  know  how  little  he  is  able  now  to 
cope  with  a  difficulty.  The  very  sense  that  his  faculties  are 
not  what  they  were  overcomes  him,  even  to  tears." 

Up  to  this  she  had  spoken  with  a  calm  firmness  that  had 
lent  a  touch  of  almost  sternness  to  her  manner,  but  at  the 
mention  of  her  poor  father's  condition,  her  courage  gave 
way,  and  she  turned  away  and  hid  her  face,  but  her  con- 
vulsed shoulders  showed  how  her  emotion  was  overcoming 
her.  I  went  towards  her,  and  took  her  hand  in  both  my 
own.     She  left  it  to  me  while  I  kissed  it  again  and  again. 

''Oh,  Sara,"  I  whispered  rather  than  spoke,  ''if  you 
knew  how  devoted  I  am  to  you,  if  you  knew  how  willingly  I 
would  give  my  very  life  for  you,  you  would  not  think  your- 
self friendless  at  this  hour.  Your  trust  in  me  has  made  me 
forget  how  lonely  I  am,  and  how  humble,  —  to  forget  all 
that  separates  us,  even  to  telling  that  I  love  you.  Give  me 
one  word  —  only  one  —  of  hope ;  or  if  not  that,  let  your 
dear  hand  but  close  on  mine,  and  I  am  yours  forever." 

She  never  spoke,  however,  and  her  cold  fingers  returned 
no  pressure  to  mine. 

' '  I  love  you ;  I  love  you !  "  I  muttered,  as  I  covered  her 
hand  with  kisses. 

"  There !  Do  you  not  hear? "  cried  she,  suddenly.  "My 
father  is  calling  me." 

"  Sara,  Sara!  Where  is  Sara?"  cried  the  old  man,  in  a 
weak,  reedy  voice. 

"I  am  coming,  dear  father,"  said  she.  "Good-bye, 
Digby ;  remember  that  I  trust  you !  " 

She  waved  me  a  farewell,  and,  with  a  faint,  sad  smile, 
she  moved  away.  As  she  reached  the  door,  however,  she 
turned,  and,  with  a  look  of  kindly  meaning,  said,  "  Trust 
you  in  all  things." 

I  sprang  forward  to  clasp  her  to  my  heart ;  but  the  door 
closed  on  her,  and  I  was  alone. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

"  ON   THE    ROAD  "    IN    CROATIA. 

I  PASSED  half  the  night  that  followed  in  writing  to  my 
mother.  It  was  a  very  long  epistle,  but,  in  my  fear  lest, 
like  so  many  others,  it  should  not  ever  reach  her,  it  was  less 
expansive  and  candid  than  I  could  have  wished.  Sara's 
name  did  not  occur  throughout,  and  yet  it  was  Sara's  image 
was  before  me  as  I  wrote,  and  to  connect  my  mother  in 
interest  for  Sara  was  my  uppermost  thought.  Without 
touching  on  details  that  might  awaken  pain,  I  told  how  I 
had  been  driven  to  attempt  something  for  my  own  support, 
and  had  not  failed. 

''  I  am  still,"  I  wrote,  "  where  I  started,  but  in  so  far  a 
different  position  that  I  am  now  well  looked  on  and  trusted, 
and  at  this  moment  about  to  set  out  on  a  mission  of  impor- 
tance. If  I  should  succeed  in  doing  what  I  am  charged  with, 
it  will  go  far  to  secure  my  future,  and  then,  dearest  mother, 
I  will  go  over  to  fetch  you,  for  I  will  no  longer  live  without 

you." 

I  pictured  the  place  I  was  living  in,  and  its  climate,  as 
attractively  as  I  was  able,  and  said,  what  I  verily  believed, 
that  I  hoped  never  to  leave  it.  Of  my  father  I  did  not 
venture  to  speak ;  but  I  invited  her,  if  the  course  of  our 
correspondence  should  prove  assured,  to  tell  me  freely  all 
about  her  present  condition,  and  where  and  how  she  was. 

*' You  will  see,  dear  mother,"  said  I,  in  conclusion,  "  that 
I  write  in  all  the  constraint  of  one  who  is  not  sure  who  may 
read  him.  Of  the  accident  by  which  the  address  I  now 
give  this  letter  reached  me,  I  will  tell  when  I  write  again. 
Meanwhile,  though  I  shall  not  be  here  to  receive  it  at  once, 
write  to  me,  to  the  care  of  Hodnig  and  Oppovich,  and  add, 
*  to  be  forwarded.'  " 


*'0N  THE  ROAD"  IN  CROATIA.  583 

I  enclosed  a  little  photograph  of  the  town,  as  seen  fro'm 
the  bay,  and  though  ill  done  and  out  of  drawing,  it  still 
conveyed  some  notion  of  the  pretty  spot  with  its  mountain 
framework. 

I  had  it  in  my  head  to  write  another  letter,  and,  indeed, 
made  about  a  dozen  attempts  to  begin  it.  It  was  to 
Pauline.  Nothing  but  very  boyishness  could  have  ever  con- 
ceived such  a  project,  but  I  thought  —  it  was  very  simple 
of  me !  —  I  thought  I  owed  it  to  her,  and  to  my  own 
loyalty,  to  declare  that  my  heart  had  wandered  from  its 
first  allegiance,  and  fixed  its  devotion  on  another.  I  be- 
lieved —  I  was  young  enough  to  believe  it  —  that  I  had  won 
her  affections,  and  I  felt  it  would  be  dishonorable  in  me  to 
deceive  her  as  to  my  own.  I  suppose  I  was  essaying  a 
task  that  would  have  puzzled  a  more  consummate  tactician 
than  myself,  for  certainly  nothing  could  be  more  palpable 
than  my  failures ;  and  though  I  tried,  with  all  the  ingenuity 
I  possessed,  to  show  that  in  my  altered  fortunes  I  could 
no  longer  presume  to  retain  any  hold  on  her  affections, 
somehow  it  would  creep  out  that  my  heart  had  opened  to  a 
sentiment  far  deeper  and  more  enthralling  than  that  love 
which  began  in  a  polka  and  ended  at  the  railway. 

I  must  own  I  am  now  grateful  to  my  stupidity  and 
ineptness,  which  saved  me  from  committing  this  great 
blunder,  though  at  the  time  I  mourned  over  my  incapacity, 
and  bewailed  the  dulness  that  destroyed  every  attempt  I 
made  to  express  myself  gracefully.  I  abandoned  the  task 
at  length  in  despair,  and  set  to  work  to  pack  up  for  my 
journey.  I  was  to  start  at  daybreak  for  Agram,  where 
some  business  would  detain  me  a  couple  of  days.  Thence  I 
was  to  proceed  to  a  small  frontier  town  in  Hungary,  called 
Ostovich,  on  the  Drave,  where  we  owned  a  forest  of  oak 
scrub,  and  which  I  was  empowered  to  sell,  if  an  advantageous 
offer  could  be  had.  If  such  should  not  be  forthcoming, 
my  instructions  were  to  see  what  water-power  existed  in  the 
neighborhood  to  work  saw-mills,  and  to  report  fully  on  the 
price  of  labor,  and  the  means  of  conveyance  to  the  coast. 
If  I  mention  these  details,  even  passingly,  it  is  but  to  show 
the  sort  of  work  that  was  intrusted  to  me,  and  how  naturally 
my  pride  was  touched  at  feeling  how  great  and  important 


584  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

were  the  interests  confided  to  my  judgment.  In  my  own* 
esteem,  at  least,  I  was  somebody.  This  sentiment,  felt  in 
the  freshness  of  youth,  is  never  equalled  by  anything  one 
experiences  of  triumph  in  after  life,  for  none  of  our  later 
successes  come  upon  hearts  joyous  in  the  day-spring  of 
existence,  hopeful  of  all  things,  and,  above  all,  hearts  that 
have  not  been  jarred  by  envy  and  made  discordant  by 
ungenerous  rivalry. 

There  was  an  especial  charm,  too,  in  the  thought  that 
my  life  was  no  every-day  common-place  existence,  but  a 
strange  series  of  ups  and  downs,  changes  and  vicissitudes, 
calling  for  continual  watchfulness,  and  no  small  amount  of 
energy ;  in  a  word,  I  was  a  hero  to  myself,  and  it  is  wonder- 
ful what  a  degree  of  interest  can  be  imparted  to  life  simply  by 
that  delusion.  My  business  at  Agram  was  soon  despatched. 
No  news  of  the  precarious  condition  of  our  ' '  house  "  had 
reached  this  place,  and  I  was  treated  with  all  the  considera- 
tion due  to  the  confidential  agent  of  a  great  firm.  I  passed 
an  evening  in  the  society  of  the  town,  and  was  closely 
questioned  whether  Carl  Bettmeyer  had  got  over  his  passion, 
for  the  Fraulein  Sara ;  or  was  she  showing  any  disposition 
to  look  more  favorably  on  his  addresses.  What  fortune 
Oppovich  could  give  his  daughter,  and  what  sort  of  marriage 
he  aspired  to  for  her,  were  all  discussed.  There  was  one 
point,  however,  all  were  agreed  upon,  that  nothing  could  be 
done  without  the  consent  of  the  ''Baron,"  as  they  distinc- 
tively called  the  great  financier  of  Paris,  whose  sway,  it 
appeared,  extended  not  only  to  questions  of  trade  and  ^ 
money,  but  to  every  relation  of  domestic  life. 

"  They  say,"  cried  one,  *'  that  the  Baron  likes  Bettmeyer, 
and  has  thrown  some  good  things  in  his  way  of  late." 

"He  gave  him  a  share  in  that  new  dock  contract  at 
Pola." 

"And  he  means  to  give  him  the  directorship  of  the  Vie- 
covar  line,  if  it  ever  be  made." 

"  He  '11  give  him  Sara  Oppovich  for  a  wife,"  said  a  third, 
"and  that's  a  better  speculation  than  them  all.  Two- 
millions  of  florins  at  least." 

"  She 's  the  richest  heiress  in  Croatia." 

"And  doesn't  she  know  it!  "  exclaimed  another.     "  The 


"ON  THE  ROAD"  IN  CROATIA.  585 

last  time  I  was  up  at  Fiume,  old  Ignaz  apologized  for  not 
presenting  me  to  her,  by  saying,  *  Yesterday  was  her 
reception  day ;  if  you  are  here  next  Wednesday,  I  '11  intro- 
duce you.' " 

' '  I  thought  it  was  only  the  nobles  had  the  custom  of 
reception  days?" 

"Wealth  is  nobility  nowadays;  and  if  Ignaz  Oppovich 
was  not  a  Jew,  he  might  have  the  best  blood  of  Austria  for  a 
son-in-law." 

The  discussion  soon  waxed  warm  as  to  whether  Jews  did 
or  did  not  aspire  to  marriage  with  Christians  of  rank,  the 
majority  opining  to  believe  that  they  placed  title  and  station 
above  even  riches,  and  that  no  people  had  such  an  intense 
appreciation  of  the  value  of  condition  as  the  Hebrew. 

"That  Frenchman  who  was  here  the  other  day,  Marsac, 
told  me  that  the  man  who  could  get  the  Stephen  Cross  for 
old  Oppovich,  and  the  title  of  Chevalier,  would  be  sure  of 
his  daughter's  hand  in  marriage." 

' '  And  does  old  Ignaz  really  care  for  such  a  thing  ?  " 

"No,  but  the  girl  does;  she's  the  haughtiest  and  the 
vainest  damsel  in  the  province." 

It  may  be  believed  that  I  found  it  very  hard  to  listen  to 
such  words  as  these  in  silence,  but  it  was  of  the  last  impor- 
tance that  I  should  not  make  what  is  called  an  eclat^  or 
bring  the  name  of  Oppovich  needlessly  forward  for  town 
talk  and  discussion ;  I  therefore  repressed  my  indignation 
and  appeared  to  take  little  interest  in  the  conversation. 

"You've  seen  the  Fraulein,  of  course?"  asked  one  of 
me. 

"To  be  sure  he  has,  and  has  been  permitted  to  kneel  and 
kiss  her  hand  on  her  birthday,"  broke  in  another. 

And  while  some  declared  that  this  was  mere  exaggeration 
and  gossip,  others  averred  that  they  had  been  present  and 
witnessed  this  act  of  homage  themselves. 

"What  has  this  young  gentleman  seen  of  this  hand-kiss- 
ing?" said  a  lady  of  the  party,  turning  to  me. 

•'  That  it  was  always  an  honor  conferred  even  more  than 
a  homage  rendered.  Madam,"  said  I,  stepping  forward  and 
kissing  her  hand ;  and  a  pleasant  laughter  greeted  this  mode 
of  concluding  the  controversy. 


586  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

''  I  have  got  a  wager  about  you,"  said  a  young  man  to  me, 
*'  and  you  alone  can  decide  it.  Are  you  or  are  you  not  from 
Upper  Austria  ?  " 

"  And  are  you  a  Jew?  **  cried  another. 

*'If  you'll  promise  to  ask  me  no  more  questions,  1*11 
answer  both  of  these,  —  I  am  neither  Jew  nor  Austrian." 

It  was  not,  however,  so  easy  to  escape  my  questioners  ;  but 
as  their  curiosity  seemed  curbed  by  no  reserves  of  delicacy, 
I  was  left  free  to  defend  myself  as  best  I  might,  and  that  I 
had  not  totally  failed,  I  gathered  from  hearing  an  old  fellow 
whisper  to  another,  — 

*'  You  '11  get  nothing  out  of  him  :  if  he  's  not  a  Jew  by 
birth,  he  has  lived  long  enough  with  them  to  keep  his  mind 
to  himself." 

Having  finished  all  I  had  to  do  at  Agram,  I  started  for 
Ostovitz.  I  could  find  no  purchaser  for  our  wood ;  indeed 
every  one  had  timber  to  sell,  and  forests  were  offered  me  on 
all  sides.  It  was  just  at  that  period  in  Austria  when  the 
nation  was  first  waking  to  thoughts  of  industrial  enterprise, 
and  schemes  of  money-getting  were  rife  everywhere ;  but 
such  was  the  ignorance  of  the  people,  so  little  versed  were 
they  in  affairs,  that  they  imagined  wealth  was  to  pour  down 
upon  them  for  the  wishing,  and  that  Fortune  asked  of  her 
votaries  neither  industry  nor  thrift. 

Perhaps  I  should  not  have  been  led  into  these  reflections 
here  if  it  were  not  that  I  had  embodied  them,  or  something 
very  like  them,  in  a  despatch  I  sent  off  to  Sara,  —  a  despatch 
on  which  I  had  expended  all  my  care  to  make  it  a  master- 
piece of  fine  writing  and  acute  observation.  I  remember 
how  I  expatiated  on  the  disabilities  of  race,  and  how  I  dwelt 
upon  the  vices  of  those  lethargic  temperaments  of  Eastern 
origin  which  seemed  so  wanting  in  all  that  energy  and  per- 
sistence which  form  the  life  of  commerce. 

This  laborious  essay  took  me  an  entire  day  to  write ;  but 
when  I  had  posted  it  at  night,  I  felt  I  had  done  a  very  grand 
thing,  not  only  as  an  intellectual  effort,  but  as  a  proof  to 
the  Fraulein  how  well  I  knew  how  to  restrict  myself  within 
the  limits  of  my  duties ;  for  not  a  sentence,  not  a  syllable, 
had  escaped  me  throughout  to  recall  thoughts  of  anything 
but   business.     I  had  asked  for  certain  instructions  about 


"ON  THE  ROAD"  IN  CROATIA.  587 

Hungary,  and  on  the  third  day  came  the  following,  in  Sara's 
hand :  — 

"  Herr  Digby,  —  There  is  no  mention  in  your  esteemed  letter  of 
the  4th  November  of  Kraus's  acceptance,  nor  have  you  explained  to 
what  part  of  Heydager's  contract  Hauser  now  objects.  Freights  are 
still  rising  here,  and  it  would  be  imprudent  to  engage  in  any  opera- 
tions that  involve  exportation.  Gold  is  also  rising,  and  the  Bank 
discount  goes  daily  higher.  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  interesting 
remarks  on  ethnology,  though  I  am  low-minded  enough  to  own,  I 
could  have  read  with  more  pleasure  whether  the  floods  in  the  Drave 
have  interfered  with  the  rafts,  and  also  whether  these  late  rains  have 
<lamaged  the  newly  sown  crops. 

"  If  you  choose  to  see  Pesth  and  Buda,  you  will  have  time,  for 
Count  Hunyadi  will  not  be  at  his  chateau  till  nigh  Christmas ;  but 
it  is  important  you  should  see  him  immediately  on  his  arrival,  for 
his  intendant  writes  to  say  that  the  Graf  has  invited  a  large  party 
of  friends  to  pass  the  festival  with  him,  and  will  not  attend  to  any 
business  matters  while  they  remain.  Promptitude  will  be  therefore 
needful.  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  your  instructions  already  given. 
Although  I  have  not  been  able  to  consult  my  father,  whose  weakness 
is  daily  greater,  I  may  say  that  you  are  empowered  to  make  a  com- 
promise, if  such  should  seem  advisable,  and  your, drafts  shall  be  duly 
honored,  if,  time  pressing,  you  are  not  in  a  position  to  acquaint  us 
with  details. 

"  The  weather  here  is  fine  now.  I  passed  yesterday  at  Abazzia, 
and  the  place  was  looking  well.  I  believe  the  Archduke  will  pur- 
chase it,  and,  though  sorry  on  some  accounts,  I  shall  be  glad  on  the 
whole. 

"  For  Hodnig  and  Oppovich, 

"  Sara  Oppovich. 

«*  Of  course,  if  Count  Hunyadi  will  not  transact  business  on  his 
arrival,  you  will  have  to  await  his  convenience.  Perhaps  the  inter- 
val could  be  profitably  passed  in  Transylvania,  where,  it  is  said,  the 
oak-bark  is  both  cheap  and  good.  See  to  this,  if  opportunity  serves. 
Bieli's  book  and  maps  are  worth  consulting." 

If  I  read  this  epistle  once,  I  read  it  fifty  times,  but  I  will 
not  pretend  to  say  with  what  strange  emotions.  All  the  dry 
reference  to  business  I  could  bear  well  enough,  but  the  little 
passing  sneer  at  what  she  called  my  ethnology  piqued  me 
painfully.  Why  should  she  have  taken  such  pains  to  tell 
me  that  nothing  that  did  not  lend  itself  to  gain  could  have 


588  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

any  interest  for  her?  or  was  it  to  say  that  these  topics  alone 
were  what  should  be  discussed  between  us  ?  Was  it  to  re- 
call me  to  my  station,  to  make  me  remember  in  what  relation 
I  stood  to  her,  she  wrote  thus  ?  These  were  not  the  natures- 
I  had  read  of  in  Balzac !  the  creatures  all  passion  and  soul 
and  sentiment,  —  women  whose  atmosphere  was  positive 
enchantment,  and  whose  least  glance  or  word  or  gesture 
would  inflame  the  heart  to  very  madness;  and  yet  was  it 
net  in  Sara  to  become  all  this  ?  Were  those  deep  lustrous 
eyes,  that  looked  away  into  space  longingly,  dreamfully, 
dazingly, —  were  they  meant  to  pore  over  wearisome  columns 
of  dry  arithmetic,  or  not  rather  to  give  back  in  recognition 
what  they  had  got  in  rapture,  and  to  look  as  they  were 
looked  into? 

Was  it,  as  a  Jewess,  that  my  speculations  about  race  had 
offended  her?  Had  I  expressed  myself  carelessly  or  ill?  I 
had  often  been  struck  by  a  smile  she  would  give,  —  not 
scornful,  nor  slighting,  but  something  that  seemed  to  say, 
"These  thoughts  are  not  our  thoughts,  nor  are  these  ways 
our  ways !  "  but  in  her  silent  fashion  she  would  make  na 
remark,  but  be  satisfied  to  shadow  forth  some  half  dissent 
by  a  mere  trembling  of  the  lip. 

She  had  passed  a  day  at  Abazzia  —  of  course,  alone  — 
wandering  about  that  delicious  spot,  and  doubtless  recall- 
ing memories  for  any  one  of  which  I  had  given  my  life'& 
blood.  And  would  she  not  bestow  a  word — one  word  — 
on  these?  Why  not  say  she  as  much  as  remembered  me; 
that  it  was  there  we  first  met !  Sure,  so  much  might  have 
been  said,  or  at  least  hinted  at,  in  all  harmlessness !  I 
had  done  nothing,  written  nothing,  to  bring  rebuke  upon 
me.  I  had  taken  no  liberty;  I  had  tried  to  make  the  dry 
detail  of  a  business  letter  less  wearisome  by  a  little  digres- 
sion,  not  wholly  out  of  apropos;  that  was  all. 

Was  then  the  Hebrew  heart  bent  sorely  on  gain?  And 
yet  what  grand  things  did  the  love  of  these  women  inspire 
in  olden  times,  and  what  splendid  natures  were  theirs! 
How  true  and  devoted,  how  self-sacrificing !  Sara's  beau- 
tiful face,  in  all  its  calm  loveliness,  rose  before  me  as  I 
thought  these  things,  and  I  felt  that  I  loved  her  more  than 
ever. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

IN    HUNGARY. 

It  still  wanted  several  weeks  of  Christmas,  and  so  I  has- 
tened off  to  Pesth  and  tried  to  acquire  some  little  knowl- 
edge of  Hungarian,  and  some  acquaintance  with  the  habits 
^nd  ways  of  Hungarian  life.  I  am  not  sure  that  I  made 
much  progress  in  anything  but  the  csardas^  —  the  national 
dance,  —  in  which  I  soon  became  a  proficient.  Its  stately 
solemnity  suddenly  changing  for  a  lively  movement;  its 
warlike  gestures  and  attitudes ;  its  haughty  tramp  and  defi- 
xint  tone ;  and,  last  of  all,  its  whirlwind  impetuosity  and 
passion,  —  all  emblems  of  the  people  who  practise  it,  — 
possessed  a  strange  fascination  for  me ;  and  I  never  missed 
a  night  of  those  public  balls  where  it  was  danced. 

Towards  the  middle  of  December,  however,  I  bethought 
me  of  my  mission,  and  set  out  for  Gross  Wardein,  which 
lay  a  long  distance  off,  near  the  Transylvanian  frontier. 
I  had  provided  myself  with  one  of  the  wicker  carriages  of 
the  country,  and  travelled  post,  usually  having  three  horses 
harnessed  abreast ;  or,  where  there  was  much  uphill,  a  team 
of  five. 

I  mention  this,  for  I  own  that  the  exhilaration  of  speed- 
ing along  at  the  stretching  gallop  of  these  splendid  juck- 
■ers,  tossing  their  wild  names  madly,  and  ringing  out  their 
myriads  of  bells,  was  an  ecstasy  of  delight  almost  madden- 
ing. Over  and  over,  as  the  excited  driver  would  urge  his 
beasts  to  greater  speed  by  a  wild  shrill  cry,  have  I  yelled 
out  in  concert  with  him,  carried  away  by  an  intense  excite- 
ment I  could  not  master. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  journey  we  left  the  region  of 
roads,  and  usually  directed  our  course  by  some  church  spire 
or  tower  in  the  distance,  or  followed  the  bank  of  a  river, 
when  not  too  devious.  This  headlong  swoop  across  fields 
and  prairies,  dashing  madly  on  in  what  seemed  utter  reck- 


690  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

lessness,  was  glorious  fun ;  aud  when  we  came  to  cross  the 
small  bridges  which  span  the  streams,  without  rail  or  para- 
pet at  either  side,  aud  where  the  deviation  of  a  few  inches- 
would  have  sent  us  headlong  into  the  torrent  beneath,  I 
felt  a  degree  of  blended  terror  and  delight  such  as  one 
experiences  in  the  mad  excitement  of  a  fox-hunt. 

On  the  third  morning  I  discovered,  on  awaking,  that  a 
heavy  fall  of  «now  had  occurred  during  the  night,  and  we 
were  forced  to  take  off  our  wheels  and  place  the  carriage  on 
sledge-slides.  This  alone  was  wanting  to  make  the  enjoy- 
ment perfect,  and  our  pace  from  this  hour  became  positively 
steeple-chasing.  Lying  back  in  my  ample  fur  mantle,  and 
my  hands  enclosed  in  a  fur  muff,  I  accepted  the  salutations 
of  the  villagers  as  we  swept  along,  or  blandly  raised  my 
hand  to  my  cap  as  some  wearied  guard  would  hurriedly  turn 
out  to  present  arms  to  a  supposed  "magnate;"  for  we  were 
long  out  of  the  beat  of  usual  travel,  and  rarely  any  but 
some  high  official  of  the  State  was  seen  to  come  '*  extra 
post,"  as  it  is  called,  through  these  wild  regions. 

Up  to  Izarous  the  country  had  been  a  plain,  slightly, 
but  very  slightly,  undulating.  Here,  however,  we  got 
amongst  the  mountains,  and  the  charm  of  scenery  was  now 
added  to  the  delight  of  the  pace.  On  the  fifth  day  I 
learned,  and  not  without  sincere  regret,  that  we  were  within 
seven  German  miles  —  something  over  thirty  of  ours  — 
from  Gross  Wardein,  from  which  the  Hunyadi  Schloss  only 
lay  about  fifty  miles. 

Up  to  this  I  had  been,  to  myself  at  least,  a  grand  seigneur 
travelling  for  his  pleasure,  careless  of  cost,  and  denying 
himself  nothing;  splendid  generosity,  transmitted  from  each 
postilion  to  his  successor,  secured  me  the  utmost  speed  his 
beasts  could  master,  and  the  impetuous  dash  with  which 
we  spun  into  the  arched  doorways  of  the  inns,  routed  the 
whole  household,  and  not  unfrequently  summoned  the  guests 
themselves  to  witness  the  illustrious  arrival.  A  few  hours 
more  and  the  grand  illusion  would  dissolve!  No  more  the 
wild  stretching  gallop,  cutting  the  snowdrift;  no  more  the 
clear  bells,  ringing  through  the  frosty  air ;  no  more  the  eager 
landlord  bustling  to  the  carriage-side  with  his  flagon  of 
heated  wine;  no  more  that  burning  delight  imparted  by 
speed,  a  sense  of   power   that   actually   intoxicates.     Not 


IN  HUNGARY.  591 

one  of  these!  A  few  hours  more  and  I  should  be  Herr 
Owen,  travelling  for  the  house  of  Hodnig  and  Oppovich, 
banished  to  the  company  of  bagmen,  and  reduced  to  a  status 
where  whatever  life  has  of  picturesque  or  graceful  is  made 
matter  for  vulgar  sarcasm  and  ridicule.  I  know  well,  ye 
gentlemen  who  hold  a  station  fixed  and  unassailable  will 
scarcely  sympathize  with  me  in  all  this;  but  the  castle- 
builders  of  this  world  —  and,  happily,  they  are  a  large  class 
—  will  lend  me  all  their  pity,  well  aware  that  so  long  as  ima- 
gination honors  the  drafts  upon  her,  the  poor  man  is  never 
bankrupt,  and  that  it  is  only  as  illusions  dissolve  he  sees 
his  insolvency. 

I  reached  Gross  Wardein  to  dinner,  and  passed  the  night 
there,  essaying,  but  with  no  remarkable  success,  to  learn 
something  of  Count  Hunyadi,  his  habits,  age,  temper,  and 
general  demeanor.  As  my  informants  were  his  countrymen, 
I  could  only  gather  that  his  qualities  were  such  as  Hunga- 
rians held  in  esteem.  He  was  proud,  brave,  costly  in  his 
mode  of  life,  splendidly  hospitable,  and  a  thorough  sports- 
man. As  to  what  he  might  prove  in  matters  of  business,  if 
he  would  even  stoop  to  entertain  such  at  all,  none  could 
say ;  the  very  thought  seemed  to  provoke  a  laugh. 

"I  once  attempted  a  deal  with  him,"  said  an  old  farmer- 
like man  at  the  fireside.  "I  wanted  to  buy  a  team  of 
juckers  he  drove  into  the  yard  here,  and  was  rash  enough 
to  offer  five  hundred  florins  for  what  he  asked  eight.  He 
did  not  even  vouchsafe  me  an  answer,  and  almost  drove  over 
me  the  next  day  as  I  stood  at  the  side  of  the  gate  there." 

"That  was  like  Tassilo,"  said  a  Hungarian,  with  flashing 
eyes. 

"He  served  you  right,"  cried  another.  "None  but  a 
German  would  have  offered  him  such  a  rudeness." 

"Not  but  he's  too  ready  with  his  heavy  whip,"  muttered 
an  old  soldier-like  fellow.  "He  might  chance  to  strike 
where  no  words  would  efface  the  welt." 

Stories  of  Hunyadi 's  extravagance  and  eccentricity  now 
poured  in  on  all  sides.  How  he  had  sold  an  estate  to  pay 
the  cost  of  an  imperial  visit  that  lasted  a  week ;  how  he  had 
driven  a  team  of  four  across  the  Danube  on  the  second  day 
of  the  frost,  when  a  heavy  man  could  have  smashed  the  ice 


^92  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

by  a  stamp  of  his  foot ;  how  he  had  killed  a  boar  in  single 
-combat,  though  it  cost  him  three  fingers  of  his  left  hand, 
and  an  awful  flesh  wound  in  the  side ;  and  numberless  other 
feats  of  daring  and  recklessness  were  recorded  by  admiring 
narrators,  who  finished  by  a  loud  Elyen  to  his  health. 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  went  away  to  my  bed  feeling  much 
encouraged  at  the  success  of  my  mission,  or  very  hopeful  of 
what  I  should  do  with  this  magnate  of  Hungary. 

By  daybreak  I  was  again  on  the  road.  The  journey  led 
through  a  wild  mountain  pass,  and  was  eminently  interest- 
ing and  picturesque ;  but  I  was  no  longer  so  open  to  enjoy- 
ment as  before,  and  serious  thoughts  of  my  mission  now 
oppressed  me,  and  I  grew  more  nervous  and  afraid  of  fail- 
ure. If  this  haughty  Graf  were  the  man  they  represented 
him,  it  was  just  as  likely  he  would  refuse  to  listen  to  me  at 
all ;  nor  was  the  fact  a  cheering  one  that  my  client  was  a 
Jew,  since  nowhere  is  the  race  less  held  in  honor  than  in 
Hungary. 

As  day  began  to  decline,  we  issued  forth  upon  a  vast 
plain  into  which  a  mountain  spur  projected  like  a  bold 
promontory  beside  the  sea.  At  the  very  extremity  of  this, 
a  large  mass,  which  might  be  rock,  seemed  to  stand  out 
against  the  sky.  "There, — yonder,'*  said  the  postilion, 
pointing  towards  it  with  his  whip;  ''that  is  Schloss  Hun- 
yadi.     There's  three  hours'  good  gallop  yet  before  us." 

A  cold  snowdrift  borne  on  a  wind  that  at  times  brought 
us  to  a  standstill,  or  even  drove  us  to  seek  shelter  by  the 
wayside,  now  set  in,  and  I  was  fain  to  roll  myself  in  my 
furs  and  lie  snugly  down  on  the  hay  in  the  wagen,  where  I 
soon  fell  asleep;  and  though  we  had  a  change  of  horses, 
and  I  must  have  managed  somehow  to  settle  with  the 
postilion  and  hand  him  his  trink-geld,  I  was  conscious  of 
nothing  till  awakened  by  the  clanking  sound  of  a  great  bell, 
when  I  started  up  and  saw  we  had  driven  into  a  spacious 
courtyard  in  which,  at  an  immense  fire,  a  number  of  people 
were  seated,  while  others  bustled  about,  harnessing  or  unhar- 
nessing horses.  "Here  we  are,  Herr  Graf !  "  cried  my  pos- 
tilion, who  called  me  Count  in  recognition  of  the  handsome 
way  in  which  I  had  treated  his  predecessor.  *'This  is 
-Schloss  Hunyadi." 


CHAPTER  XXVn. 

SCHLOSS   HUNYADI. 

When  I  had  made  known  my  rank  and  quality,  I  was  as- 
signed a  room  —  a  very  comfortable  one  —  in  one  wing  of 
the  castle,  and  no  more  notice  taken  of  me  than  if  I  had 
been  a  guest  at  an  inn.  The  house  was  filled  with  visitors ; 
but  the  master,  with  some  six  or  seven  others,  was  away  in 
Transylvania  boar-shooting.  As  it  was  supposed  he  would 
not  return  for  eight  or  ten  days,  I  had  abundant  time  to  look 
^bout  me,  and  learn  something  of  the  place  and  the  people. 

Schloss  Hunyadi  dated  from  the  fifteenth  century,  although 
now  a  single  square  tower  was  all  that  remained  of  the  early 
building.  Successive  additions  had  been  made  in  every 
imaginable  taste  and  style,  till  the  whole  presented  an 
enormous  incongruous  mass,  in  which  fortress,  farmhouse, 
convent,  and  palace  struggled  for  the  mastery,  size  alone 
giving  an  air  of  dignity  to  what  numberless  faults  would 
have  condemned  as  an  outrage  on  all  architecture. 

If  there  was  deformity  and  ugliness  without,  there  was, 
however,  ample  comfort  and  space  within.  Above  two 
hundred  persons  could  be  accommodated  beneath  the  roof, 
and  half  as  many  more  had  been  occasionally  stowed  away 
in  the  out-buildings.  I  made  many  attempts,  but  all  unsuc- 
cessfully, to  find  out  what  number  of  servants  the  household 
consisted  of.  Several  wore  livery,  and  many  —  especially 
such  as  waited  on  guests  humble  as  myself  —  were  dressed 
in  blouse,  with  the  crest  of  the  house  embroidered  on  the 
breast ;  while  a  little  army  of  retainers  in  Jager  costume,  or 
in  the  picturesque  dress  of  the  peasantry,  lounged  about  the 
oourtyard,  lending  a  hand  to  unharness  or  harness  a  team, 
to  fetch  a  bucket  of  water,  or  "strap  down"  a  beast,  as 
some  weary  traveller  would  ride  in,  splashed  and  wayworn. 

38 


594  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

If  there  seemed  no  order  or  discipline  anywhere,  there 
was  little  confusion,  and  no  ill  humor  whatever.  All 
seemed  ready  to  oblige ;  and  the  work  of  life,  so  far  as  I 
could  see  from  my  window,  went  on  cheerfully  and  joyfully, 
if  not  very  regularly  or  well. 

If  there  was  none  of  the  trim  propriety,  or  that  neatness 
that  rises  to  elegance,  which  I  had  seen  in  my  father' & 
household,  there  was  a  lavish  profusion  here,  a  boundless 
abundance,  that,  contrasted  with  our  mode  of  life,  made  us 
seem  almost  mean  and  penurious.  Guests  came  and  went 
unceasingly,  and,  to  all  seeming,  not  known  to  any  one. 
An  unbounded  hospitality  awaited  all  comers,  and  of  the 
party  who  supped  and  caroused  to-night,  none  remained  on 
the  morrow,  nor,  perhaps,  even  a  name  was  remembered. 

It  took  me  some  days  to  learn  this,  and  to  know  that 
there  was  nothing  singular  or  strange  in  the  position  I  occu- 
pied, living  where  none  knew  why  or  whence  I  came,  or  even- 
so  much  as  cared  to  inquire  my  name  or  country. 

In  the  great  hall,  where  we  dined  all  together,  —  the  dis- 
tinguished guests  at  one  end  of  the  table,  the  lesser  notabil- 
ities lower  down,  and  the  menials  last  of  all,  —  there  was 
ever  a  place  reserved  for  sudden  arrivals ;  and  it  was  rare 
that  the  meal  went  over  without  some  such.  A  hearty  wel- 
come and  a  cordial  greeting  were  soon  over,  and  the  work 
of  festivity  went  on  as  before. 

I  was  soon  given  to  understand  that,  not  only  I  might 
dispose  of  my  time  how  I  pleased,  but  that  every  appliance 
to  do  so  agreeably  was  at  my  disposal,  and  that  I  might . 
ride  or  drive  or  shoot  or  sledge,  just  as  I  fancied.  And 
though  I  was  cautious  to  show  that  my  personal  pretensions 
were  of  the  very  humblest,  this  fact  seemed  no  barrier 
whatever  to  my  enjoyment  of  all  these  courteous  civilities. 

"We  're  always  glad  when  any  one  will  ride  the  Juckers,'* 
said  a  Jager  to  me;  "they  are  ruined  for  want  of  exer- 
cise, and  if  you  like  three  mounts  a  day,  you  shall  have 
them." 

It  was  a  rare  piece  of  good  luck  for  me  that  I  could  both 
ride  and  shoot.  No  two  accomplishments  could  have  stood 
me  in  such  request  as  these,  and  I  rose  immensely  in  the 
esteem  of  those  amongst  whom  I  sat  at  table  when  they  saw 


SCHLOSS  HUNYADI.  695 

that  I  could  sit  a  back-jumper  and  shoot  a  wood-pigeon  on 
the  wing. 

While  I  thus  won  such  humble  suffrages,  there  was  a 
higher  applause  that  my  heart  craved  and  longed  for.  As 
the  company  —  some  five-and-twenty  or  thirty  persons  — 
who  dined  at  the  upper  table  withdrew  after  dinner,  they 
passed  into  the  drawing-rooms,  and  we  saw  them  no  more. 
Of  the  music  and  dancing,  in  which  they  passed  the  evening, 
we  knew  nothing ;  and  we  in  our  own  way  had  our  revels, 
which  certainly  amply  contented  those  who  had  no  preten- 
sions to  higher  company;  but  this  was  precisely  what  I 
could  not,  do  what  I  might,  divest  myself  of.  Like  one  of 
the  characters  of  my  old  favorite  Balzac,  I  yearned  to  be 
once  more  in  the  salon,  and  amongst  ces  epaules  blanches, 
where  the  whole  game  of  life  is  finer,  where  the  parries  are 
neater,  and  the  thrusts  more  deadly. 

An  accident  gave  me  what  all  my  ingenuity  could  not  have 
effected.  A  groom  of  the  chambers  came  suddenly,  one 
evening,  into  the  hall  where  we  all  sat,  to  ask  if  any  one 
there  could  play  the  new  csardas  called  the  "Stephan."  It 
was  all  the  rage  at  Pesth ;  but  no  copy  of  it  had  yet  reached 
the  far  East.  I  had  learned  this  while  at  Pesth,  and  had 
the  music  with  me;  and  of  course,  offered  my  services  at 
once.  Scarcely  permitted  a  moment  to  make  some  slight 
change  of  dress,  I  found  myself  in  a  handsome  salon  with 
a  numerous  company.  In  my  first  confusion  I  could  mark 
little  beyond  the  fact  that  most  of  the  persons  were  in  the 
national  costume,  the  ladies  wearing  the  laced  bodies,  cov- 
ered with  precious  stones,  and  the  men  in  velvet  coats,  with 
massive  turquoise  buttons,  the  whole  effect  being  something 
like  that  of  a  splendid  scene  in  a  theatre. 

"We  are  going  to  avail  ourselves  of  your  talent  at  the 
piano,  sir,"  said  the  Countess  Hunyadi,  approaching  me 
with  a  courteous  smile.  "  But  let  me  first  offer  you  some 
tea." 

Not  knowing  if  fortune  might  ever  repeat  her  present 
favor,  I  resolved  to  profit  by  the  opportunity  to  the  utmost ; 
and  while  cautiously  repressing  all  display,  contrived  to 
show  that  I  was  master  of  some  three  or  four  languages, 
and  a  person  of  education,  generally. 


596  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"We  are  puzzled  about  your  nationality,  sir,"  said  the 
Countess  to  me.  ''If  not  too  great  a  liberty,  may  I  ask 
your  country?" 

When  I  said  England,  the  effect  produced  was  almost 
magical.  A  little  murmur  of  something  I  might  even  call 
applause  ran  through  the  room;  for  I  had  mentioned  the 
land  of  all  Europe  dearest  to  the  Hungarian  heart,  and  I 
heard,  "An  Englishman!  an  Englishman!"  repeated  from 
mouth  to  mouth,  in  accents  of  kindest  meaning. 

"Why  had  I  not  presented  myself  before?  Why  had  I 
not  sent  my  name  to  the  Countess?  Why  not  have  made 
it  known  that  I  was  here  ?  "  and  so  on,  were  asked  eagerly 
of  me,  as  though  my  mere  nationality  had  invested  me  with 
some  special  claim  to  attention  and  regard. 

I  had  to  own  that  my  visit  was  a  purely  business  one ; 
that  I  had  come  to  see  and  confer  with  the  Count,  and  had 
not  the  very  slightest  pretension  to  expect  the  courtesies  I 
was  then  receiving. 

My  performance  at  the  piano  crowned  my  success.  I 
played  the  csardas  with  such  spirit  as  an  impassioned 
dancer  alone  can  give  to  the  measure  he  delights  in,  and 
two  enthusiastic  encores  rewarded  my  triumph.  "Adolf, 
you  must  play  now,  for  I  know  the  Englishman  is  dying  to 
have  a  dance,"  said  the  gay  young  Countess  Palfi;  "and  I 
am  quite  ready  to  be  his  partner."  And  the  next  moment 
we  were  whirling  along  in  all  the  mad  mazes  of  the  csardas. 

There  is  that  amount  of  display  in  the  dancing  of  the 
csardas  that  not  merely  invites  criticism,  but  actually  com- 
pels an  outspoken  admiration  whenever  anything  like  excel- 
lence accompanies  the  performance.  My  partner  was  cele- 
brated for  the  grace  and  beauty  of  her  dancing,  and  for  those 
innumerable  interpolations  which,  fancy  or  caprice  suggest- 
ing, she  could  throw  into  the  measure.  To  meet  and  respond 
to  these  by  appropriate  gesture,  to  catch  the  spirit  of  each 
mood,  and  be  ready  for  each  change,  was  the  task  now  as- 
signed me ;  and  I  need  not  say  with  what  passionate  ardor  I 
threw  myself  into  it.  At  one  moment  she  would  advance  in 
proud  defiance;  and  as  I  fell  back  in  timid  homage,  she 
would  turn  and  fly  off  in  the  wild  transport  of  a  waltz  move- 
ment.    Then  it  was  mine  to  pursue  and  overtake  her ;  and, 


SCHLOSS  HUNYADI.  597 

clasping  her,  whirl  away,  till  suddenly  with  a  bound  she 
would  free  herself,  again  to  dramatize  some  passing  emo- 
tion, some  mood  of  deep  dejection,  or  of  mad  and  exuber- 
ant delight.  It  was  clear  that  she  was  bent  on  trying  the 
resources  of  my  ingenuity  to  the  very  last  limit ;  and  the 
loud  plaudits  that  greeted  my  successes  had  evidently  put 
her  pride  on  the  mettle.  I  saw  this,  and  saw,  as  I  thought, 
that  the  contest  had  begun  to  pique;  so,  taking  the  next 
opportunity  she  gave  me  to  touch  her  hand,  I  dropped  on  one 
knee,  and,  kissing  her  fingers,  declared  myself  vanquished. 

A  deafening  cheer  greeted  this  finale,  and  accompanied 
us  as  I  led  my  partner  to  her  seat. 

It  is  a  fortunate  thing  for  young  natures  that  there  is  no 
amount  of  praise,  no  quantity  of  flattery,  ever  palls  upon 
them.  Their  moral  digestion  is  as  great  as  their  physical; 
and  even  gluttony  does  not  seem  to  hurt  them.  Of  all  the 
flattering  speeches  made  me  on  my  performance,  none  were 
more  cordially  uttered  than  by  my  beautiful  partner,  who 
declared  that  if  I  had  but  the  Hungarian  costume,  —  where 
the  clink  of  the  spur  and  the  jingle  of  the  hussar  equipment 
blend  with  the  time,  —  my  csardas  was  perfection. 

Over  and  over  again  were  regrets  uttered  that  the  Empress, 
who  had  seen  the  dance  at  Pesth  done  by  timid  and  unim- 
passioned  dancers,  and  who  had,  in  consequence,  carried 
away  but  a  faint  idea  of  its  real  captivation,  could  have 
witnessed  our  performance;  and  some  even  began  to  plot 
how  such  a  representation  could  be  prepared  for  her 
Majesty's  next  visit  to  Hungary.  While  they  thus  talked, 
supper  was  announced ;  and  as  the  company  were  marshal- 
ling themselves  into  the  order  to  move  forward,  I  took  the 
opportunity  to  slip  away  unnoticed  to  my  room,  well  remem- 
bering that  my  presence  there  was  the  result  of  accident,  and 
that  nothing  but  a  generous  courtesy  could  regard  me  as  a 
guest. 

I  had  not  been  many  minutes  in  my  room  when  I  heard  a 
footstep  in  the  corridor.  I  turned  the  key  in  my  lock,  and 
put  out  my  light. 

"Herr  Engender!  Herr  Englander!"  cried  a  servant's 
voice,  as  a  sharp  knocking  shook  the  door.  I  made  no 
reply,  and  he  retreated. 


598  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

It  was  clear  to  me  that  an  invitation  had  been  sent  after 
me ;  and  this  thought  filled  the  measure  of  my  self-gratula- 
tion,  and  I  drew  nigh  my  fire,  to  sit  and  weave  the  pleasant- 
est  fancies  that  had  crossed  my  mind  for  many  a  long  day. 

I  waited  for  some  time,  sitting  by  the  firelight,  and  then 
relit  my  lamp.  I  had  a  long  letter  to  write  to  Mademoiselle 
Sara ;  for  up  to  then  I  had  said  nothing  of  my  arrival,  nor 
given  any  account  of  the  Schloss  Hunyadi. 

Had  my  task  been  simply  to  record  my  life  and  my  im- 
pressions of  those  around  me  at  Hunyadi,  nothing  could 
well  have  been  much  easier.  My  few  days  there  had  been 
actually  crammed  with  those  small  and  pleasant  incidents 
which  tell  well  in  gossiping  correspondence.  It  was  all, 
too,  so  strange,  so  novel,  so  picturesque,  that,  to  make  an 
effective  tableau  of  such  a  life,  was  merely  to  draw  on 
memory. 

There  was  a  barbaric  grandeur,  on  the  whole,  in  the  vast 
building;  its  crowds  of  followers,  its  hordes  of  retainers 
who  came  and  went,  apparently  at  no  bidding  but  their 
own ;  in  the  ceaseless  tide  of  travellers  who,  hospited  for  the 
night,  went  their  way  on  the  morrow,  no  more  impressed 
by  the  hospitality,  to  all  seeming,  than  by  a  thing  they  had 
their  own  valid  right  to.  Details  there  were  of  neglect  and 
savagery,  that  even  an  humble  household  might  have  been 
ashamed  of,  but  these  were  lost  —  submerged,  as  it  were  — 
in  that  ocean  of  boundless  extravagance  and  cost,  and 
speedily  lost  sight  of. 

It  was  now  my  task  to  tell  Sara  all  this,  colored  by  the 
light  —  a  warm  light,  too  —  of  my  own  enjoyment  of  it.  I 
pictured  the  place  as  I  saw  it  on  the  night  I  came,  and  told 
how  I  could  not  imagine  for  a  while  in  what  wild  region  I 
found  myself;  I  narrated  the  way  in  which  I  was  assigned 
my  place  in  this  strange  world,  with  Ober-jagers  and  Unter- 
jagers  for  my  friends,  who  mounted  me  and  often  accom- 
panied me  in  my  rides ;  how  I  had  seen  the  vast  territories 
from  hill-tops  and  eminences  which  pertained  to  the  great 
Count,  boundless  plains  that  in  summer  would  have  been 
waving  with  yellow  corn,  and  far-stretching  woods  of  oak  or 
pine  lost  in  the  long  distance ;  and,  last  of  all,  coming  down 
to  the  very  moment  I  was  writing,  I  related  the  incident  by 


SCHLOSS  HUNYADI.  599 

which  I  had  been  promoted  to  the  society  of  the  castle,  and 
iiow  I  had  passed  my  first  evening. 

My  pen  ran  rapidly  along  as  I  told  of  the  splendors  and 
magnificence  of  the  scene,  and  of  a  company  whose  brilliant 
costume  filled  up  the  measure  of  the  enchantment.  "  They 
pass  and  repass  before  me,  in  all  their  gorgeous  bravery,  as 
I  write ;  the  air  vibrates  with  the  music,  and  unconsciously 
my  foot  keeps  time  with  the  measure  of  that  csardas^  that 
spins  and  whirls  before  me  till  my  brain  reels  with  a  mad 
intoxication." 

It  was  only  when  I  read  over  what  I  had  written,  that  I 
became  aware  of  the  questionable  taste  of  recording  these 
things  to  one  who,  perhaps,  was  to  read  them  after  a  day  of 
heavy  toil  or  a  sleepless  night  of  watching.  What  will 
she  think  of  me,  thought  I,  if  it  be  thus  I  seem  to  discharge 
the  weighty  trust  confided  to  me  ?  Was  it  to  mingle  in  such 
revelries  I  came  here,  or  will  she  deem  that  these  follies  are 
the  fitting  prelude  to  a  grave  and  difficult  negotiation? 
For  a  moment  I  had  half  determined  to  throw  my  letter  in 
the  fire,  and  limit  myself  simply  to  saying  that  I  had 
arrived,  and  was  awaiting  the  Count's  return!  but  my 
pride,  or  rather  my  vanity,  carried  the  day;  I  could  not 
repress  the  delight  I  felt  to  be  in  a  society  I  clung  to  by  so 
many  interesting  ties,  and  to  show  that  here  I  was  in  my 
true  element,  —  here  breathing  the  air  that  was  native 
to  me. 

"I  am  not  to  be  supposed  to  forget,"  I  wrote,  *'that  it 
was  not  for  these  pleasures  you  sent  me  here,  for  I  bear 
well  in  mind  why  I  have  come,  and  what  I  have  to  do. 
Count  Hunyadi  is,  however,  absent,  and  will  not  return 
before  the  end  of  the  week,  by  which  time  I  fully  hope  that 
I  shall  have  assured  such  a  position  here  as  will  mainly 
contribute  to  my  ability  to  serve  you.  I  pray  you,  there- 
fore, to  read  this  letter  by  the  light  of  the  assurance  I  now 
give,  and  though  I  may  seem  to  lend  myself  too  easily  to 
pleasure,  to  believe  that  no  seductions  of  amusement,  no 
flatteries  of  my  self-love,  shall  turn  me  from  the  devotion  I 
owe  you,  and  from  the  fidelity  to  which  I  pledge  my  life." 
With  this  I  closed  my  letter  and  addressed  it. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


THE    SALON. 


The  morning  after  my  csardas  success,  a  valet  in  discreet 
black  brought  me  a  message  from  the  Countess  that  she 
expected  to  see  me  at  her  table  at  dinner,  and  from  him  I 
learned  the  names  and  rank  of  the  persons  I  had  met  the 
night  before.  They  were  all  of  that  high  noblesse  which 
in  Hungary  assumes  a  sort  of  family  prestige,  and  by 
frequent  intermarriage  really  possesses  many  of  the  close 
familiar  interests  of  the  family.  Austrians,  or  indeed 
Germans  from  any  part,  are  rarely  received  in  these  inti- 
mate gatherings,  and  I  learned  with  some  surprise  that  the 
only  strangers  were  an  English  ' '  lord  "  and  his  countess  — 
so  the  man  styled  them  —  who  were  then  amongst  the 
guests.  "The  Lord  "was  with  the  Count  on  the  shooting 
excursion ;  my  Lady  being  confined  to  her  room  by  a 
heavy  cold  she  had  caught  out  sledging. 

Shall  I  be  misunderstood  if  I  own  that  I  was  very 
sorry  to  hear  that  an  Englishman  and  a  man  of  title  was 
amongst  the  company?  Whatever  favor  foreigners  might 
extend  to  any  small  accomplishments  I  could  lay  claim  to, 
I  well  knew  would  not  compensate  in  my  countryman's 
eyes  for  my  want  of  station.  In  my  father's  house  I  had 
often  had  occasion  to  remark  that  while  Englishmen  freely 
admitted  the  advances  of  a  foreigner,  and  accepted  his 
acquaintance  with  a  courteous  readiness,  with  each  other 
they  maintained  a  cold  and  studied  reserve ;  as  though  no 
difference  of  place  or  circumstance  was  to  obliterate  that 
insular  code  which  defines  class,  and  limits  each  man  to 
the  exact  rank  he  belongs  to. 

When  they  shall  see,  therefore,  thought  I,  how  my  titled 
countryman  will  treat  me,  —  the  distance  at  which  he  will  hold 


THE   SALON.  601 

me,  and  the  measured  firmness  with  which  he  will  repel, 
not  my  familiarities,  for  I  should  not  dare  them,  but  simply 
the  ease  of  my  manner,  —  these  foreigners  will  be  driven  to 
regard  me  as  some  ignoble  upstart  who  has  no  pretension 
whatever  to  be  amongst  them.  I  was  very  unwilling  to  en- 
counter this  humiliation.  It  was  true  I  was  not  sailing  under 
false  colors.  I  had  assumed  no  pretensions  from  which  I 
was  now  to  retreat.  I  had  nothing  to  disown  or  disavow ; 
but  still  I  was  about  to  be  the  willing  guest  of  a  society,  to 
a  place  in  which  in  my  own  country  I  could  not  have  the 
faintest  pretension  ;  and  it  was  just  possible  that  my  country- 
man might  bring  this  fact  before  me. 

He  might  do  worse,  —  he  might  question  me  as  to  who  and 
what  I  was ;  nor  was  I  very  sure  how  my  tact  or  my  temper 
might  carry  me  through  such  an  ordeal. 

Would  it  not  be  wiser  and  better  for  me  to  avoid  this 
peril?  Should  I  not  spare  myself  much  mortification  and 
much  needless  pain?  Thus  thinking,  I  resolved  to  wait 
on  the  Countess  at  once,  and  explain  frankly  why  I  felt 
obliged  to  decline  the  gracious  courtesy  she  had  extended 
to  me,  and  refuse  an  honor  so  full  of  pleasure  and  of 
pride. 

She  was  not  alone  as  I  entered,  —  the  Countess  Palfi  was 
with  her,  —  and  I  scarcely  knew  how  to  approach  my  theme 
in  presence  of  a  third  person.  With  a  bold  effort,  however, 
I  told  what  I  had  come  for ;  not  very  collectedly,  indeed,  nor 
perhaps  very  intelligibly,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  convey 
that  I  had  not  courage  to  face  what  might  look  at  least  like 
a  false  position,  and  was  almost  sure  to  entail  all  the  unpleas- 
ant relations  of  such.  "In  fact.  Madam,"  said  I,  "I  am 
nobody ;  and  in  my  country  men  of  rank  never  associate  with 
nobodies,  even  by  an  accident.  My  Lord  would  not  forgive 
you  for  throwing  him  into  such  acquaintanceship,  and  I 
should  never  forgive  myself  for  having  caused  you  the  un- 
pleasantness. I  don't  imagine  I  have  made  my  meaning 
very  clear.'* 

*'  You  have  certainly  made  me  very  uncomfortable,"  broke 
in  Countess  Hunyadi,  thoughtfully.  "I  thought  that  we 
Hungarians  had  rather  strict  notions  on  these  subjects,  but 
these  of  your  country  leave  them  miles  behind." 


602  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

'*  And  are  less  reasonable,  besides,"  said  the  Palfi,  "  since 
your  nobility  is  being  continually  recruited  from  so  rich  a 
bourgeoisie." 

*' At  all  events,"  cried  the  Countess,  suddenly,  *'we  are 
here  at  Schloss  Hunyadi,  and  I  am  its  mistress.  I  invite 
you  to  dine  with  me ;  it  remains  for  you  to  decide  how  you 
treat  my  invitation." 

"Put  in  that  way,  Madam,  I  accept  with  deference ;  "  and 
I  bowed  deeply  and  moved  towards  the  door.  The  ladies 
acknowledged  my  salute  in  silence,  and  I  fancied  with  cold- 
ness, and  I  retired. 

I  was  evidently  mistaken  in  attributing  coldness  to  their 
manner ;  the  ladies  received  me  when  I  appeared  at  dinner 
with  a  marked  cordiality,  I  sat  next  Madame  Palfi,  who 
talked  to  me  like  an  old  friend,  told  me  who  the  various 
people  at  table  were,  and  gave  me  great  pleasure  by  saying 
that  I  was  sure  to  become  a  favorite  with  Count  Hunyadi, 
who  delighted  in  gayety,  and  cherished  all  those  that  pro- 
moted it.  Seeing  what  interest  I  took  in  the  ways  of  Hun- 
garian life,  she  explained  many  of  the  customs  I  saw  around 
me,  which,  deriving  from  a  great  antiquity,  were  doubtless 
soon  destined  to  give  way  before  the  advance  of  a  higher 
civilization.  I  asked  what  she  knew  of  the  English  guests. 
It  was  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  —  Count  Hunyadi  had 
made  their  acquaintance  at  Baden  that  summer,  and  invited 
them  to  pass  their  Christmas  with  him.  Countess  Palfi  had 
herself  arrived  since  they  came,  and  had  not  seen  them  ;  for 
"  my  Lord,"  as  he  was  generally  called,  had  left  at  once  to 
join  the  shooting-party,  and  my  Lady  had  not  appeared 
since  the  day  after  her  arrival.  "  I  only  know  that  she  is  a 
great  beauty,  and  of  most  charming  manners.  The  men  all 
rave  of  her,  so  that  we  are  half  jealous  already.  We  were 
expecting  to  see  her  at  dinner  to-day,  but  we  hear  that  she 
is  less  well  than  yesterday." 

"  Do  you  know  their  name?  " 

' '  No ;  I  believe  I  heard  it,  —  but  I  am  not  familiar  with 
English  names,  and  it  has  escaped  me ;  but  I  will  present 
you  by  and  by  to  Count  George  Szechenyi,  who  was  at 
Baden  when  the  Hunyadi  met  them, — he'll  tell  you  more 
of  them." 


THE   SALON.  603 

I  assured  her  that  my  curiosity  was  most  amply  satisfied 
already.  It  was  a  class  in  which  I  could  not  expect  to  find 
an  acquaintance,  far  less  a  friend. 

' '  There  is  something  almost  forced  in  this  humility  of 
yours,"  cried  she.  *' Are  we  to  find  out  some  fine  morning 
that  you  are  a  prince  in  disguise?"  She  laughed  so  merrily 
at  her  own  conceit  that  Madame  Hunyadi  asked  the  cause  of 
her  mirth. 

''  I  will  tell  you  later  on,"  said  she.  We  soon  afterwards 
rose  to  go  into  the  drawing-room,  and  I  saw  as  they  laughed 
together  that  she  had  told  her  what  she  said. 

"Do  you  know,"  said  the  Countess  Hunyadi,  approach- 
ing me,  "  I  am  half  of  Madame  Palfi's  mind,  and  I  shall 
never  rest  till  you  reveal  your  secret  to  us  ?  " 

I  said  something  laughingly  about  my  incognito  being  the 
best  coat  in  my  wardrobe,  and  the  matter  dropped.  That 
night  I  sang  several  times,  alone,  and  in  duet  with  the 
Palfi,  and  was  overwhelmed  with  flatteries  of  my  "  fresh 
tenor  voice"  and  my  "admirable  method."  It  was  some- 
thing so  new  and  strange  to  me  to  find  myself  the  centre  of 
polite  attentions,  and  of  those  warm  praises  which  consum- 
mate good  breeding  knows  how  to  bestow  without  outraging 
taste,  that  I  found  it  hard  to  repress  the  wild  delight  that 
possessed  me. 

If  I  had  piqued  their  curiosity  to  find  out  who  or  what  I 
was,  I  had  also  stimulated  my  own  ambition  to  astonish 
them. 

"  He  says  he  will  ride  out  with  me  to-morrow,  and  does  n't 
care  if  I  give  him  a  lively  mount,"  said  one,  speaking  of 
me. 

"  And  you  mean  to  gratify  him,  George?  "  asked  another. 

"He  shall  have  the  roan  that  hoisted  you  out  of  the 
saddle  with  his  hind  quarters." 

"Come,  come,  gentlemen,  I'll  not  have  my  protege  in- 
jured to  gratify  your  jealousies,"  said  Madame  Hunyadi; 
"  he  shall  be  my  escort." 

"  If  he  rides  as  he  plays  billiards,  you  need  not  be  much 
alarmed  about  him.  The  fellow  can  do  what  he  likes  at  the 
cannon  game." 

"  I  'd  give  fifty  Naps  to  know  his  history,"  cried  another. 


604  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTTS. 

I  was  playing  chess  as  he  said  this,  and,  turning  my  head 
quietly  around,  I  said,  ^'  The  secret  is  not  worth  half  the 
money,  sir ;  and  if  it  really  interests  you,  you  shall  have  it 
for  the  asking." 

He  muttered  out  a  mass  of  apologies  and  confused  ex- 
cuses, to  all  the  embarrassment  of  which  I  left  him  most 
pitilessly,  and  the  incident  ended.  I  saw,  however,  enough 
to  perceive  that  if  I  had  won  the  suffrages  of  the  ladies,  the 
men  of  the  party  had  conceived  an  undisguised  dislike  of 
me,  and  openly  resented  the  favor  shown  me. 

"What  can  you  do  with  the  foils,  young  gentleman?'* 
whispered  Szechenyi  to  me,  as  he  came  near. 

**  Pretty  much  as  I  did  with  you  at  billiards  awhile  ago," 
said  I,  insolently  ;  for  my  blood  was  up,  and  I  burned  to  fix 
a  quarrel  somewhere. 

**  Shall  we  try  ?  "  asked  he,  dryly. 

**  If  you  say  without  the  buttons,  I  agree." 

**  Of  course,  I  mean  that." 

I  nodded,  and  he  went  on,  — 

* '  Come  down  to  the  riding-school  by  the  first  light  to- 
morrow then,  and  I  '11  have  all  in  readiness." 

I  gave  another  nod  of  assent,  and  moved  away.  I  had 
enough  on  my  hands  now ;  for,  besides  other  engagements, 
I  had  promised  the  Countess  Palfi  to  arrange  a  little  piece 
for  private  theatricals,  and  have  it  ready  by  the  time  of 
Count  Hunyadi's  return.  So  far  from  feeling  oppressed 
or  overwhelmed  by  the  multiplicity  of  these  cares,  they 
stimulated  me  to  a  degree  of  excitement  almost  madden- 
ing. Failure  somewhere  seemed  inevitable,  and,  for  the 
life  of  me,  I  could  not  choose  where  it  should  be.  As  my 
spirits  rose,  I  threw  off  all  the  reserve  I  had  worn  before, 
and  talked  away  with  an  animation  and  boldness  I  felt 
uncontrollable.  I  made  calemhourgs^  and  dashed  off  im- 
promptu verses  at  the  piano ;  and  when,  culminating  in  some 
impertinence  by  a  witty  picture  of  the  persons  around  me 
I  had  convulsed  the  whole  room  with  laughter,  I  sprang  up, 
and,  saying  good-night,  disappeared. 

The  roars  of  their  laughter  followed  me  down  the  corridor, 
nor  did  they  cease  to  ring  in  my  ears  till  I  had  closed  my 
door. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

AN    UNLOOKED-FOR   MEETING. 

I  COULD  more  easily  record  my  sensations  in  the  paroxysm 
of  a  fever  than  recall  how  I  passed  that  night.  I  am  aware 
that  I  wrote  a  long  letter  to  my  mother,  and  a  longer  to 
Sara,  both  to  be  despatched  in  case  ill  befell  me  in  my  en- 
counter. What  I  said  to  either,  or  how  I  said  it,  I  know 
not. 

No  more  can  I  explain  why  I  put  all  my  papers  together 
in  such  fashion  that  they  could  be  thrown  into  the  fire  at 
once,  without  leaving  any,  the  slightest,  clew  to  trace  me 
by.  That  secret,  which  1  had  affected  to  hold  so  cheaply, 
did  in  reality  possess  some  strange  fascination  for  me,  and 
I  desired  to  be  a  puzzle  and  an  enigma  even  after  I  was 
gone. 

It  wanted  one  short  hour  of  dawn  when  I  had  finished ; 
but  I  was  still  too  much  excited  to  sleep.  I  knew  how 
unfavorably  I  should  come  to  the  encounter  before  me  with 
jarred  nerves  and  the  weariness  of  a  night's  watching ;  but 
it  was  too  late  now  to  help  that;  too  late,  besides,  to 
speculate  on  what  men  would  say  of  such  a  causeless  duel, 
brought  on,  as  I  could  not  conceal  from  myself,  by  my  hot 
temper.  By  the  time  I  had  taken  my  cold  bath  my  nerves 
became  more  braced,  and  I  scarcely  felt  a  trace  of  fatigue 
or  exhaustion.  The  gray  morning  was  just  breaking  as  I 
stole  quietly  downstairs  and  issued  forth  into  the  courtyard. 
A  heavy  fall  of  snow  had  occurred  in  the  night,  and  an  un- 
broken expanse  of  billowy  whiteness  spread  out  before  me, 
save  where,  from  a  corner  of  the  court,  some  foot-tracks  led 
towards  the  riding-school.  I  saw,  therefore,  that  I  was  not 
the  first  at  the  tryst,  and  I  hastened  on  in  all  speed. 


606  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTTS. 

Six  or  eight  young  men,  closely  muffled  in  furs,  stood  at 
the  door  as  I  came  up,  and  gravely  uncovered  to  me.  They 
made  way  for  me  to  pass  in  without  speaking ;  and  while, 
stamping  the  snow  from  my  boots,  I  said  something  about 
the  cold  of  the  morning,  they  muttered  what  might  mean 
assent  or  the  reverse  in  a  low  half-sulky  tone,  that  certainly 
little  invited  to  further  remark. 

For  a  few  seconds  they  talked  together  in  whispers,  and 
then  a  tall  ill-favored  fellow,  with  a  deep  scar  from  the 
cheek-bone  to  the  upper  lip,  came  abruptly  up  to  me. 

"Look  here,  young  fellow,"  said  he.  "I  am  to  act  as 
your  second ;  and  though,  of  course,  I  'd  like  to  know  that 
the  man  I  handled  was  a  gentleman,  I  do  not  ask  you  to  tell 
anything  about  yourself  that  you  prefer  to  keep  back.  I 
would  only  say  that,  if  ugly  consequences  come  of  this  stupid 
business,  the  blame  must  fall  upon  you.  Your  temper  pro- 
voked it,  is  that  not  true?" 

I  nodded  assent,  and  he  went  on. 

"  So  far,  all  right.  The  next  point  is  this.  We  are  all 
on  honor  that,  whatever  happens,  not  a  word  or  a  syllable 
shall  ever  escape  us.     Do  you  agree  to  this?" 

'*  I  agree,"  said  I,  calmly. 

*'  Give  me  your  hand  on  it." 

I  gave  him  my  hand  ;  and  as  he  held  it  in  his  own,  he  said, 
*'0n  the  faith  of  a  gentleman,  I  will  never  reveal  to  my 
last  day  what  shall  pass  here  this  morning." 

I  repeated  the  words  after  him,  and  we  moved  on  into  the 

school. 

****** 

****** 
****** 

I  had  drawn  my  sofa  in  front  of  the  fire,  and,  stretching 
myself  on  it,  fell  into  a  deep  dreamless  sleep.  A  night's- 
wakefulness,  and  the  excitement  I  had  gone  through,  had  so 
far  worked  upon  me  that  I  did  not  hear  the  opening  of  my 
door,  nor  the  tread  of  a  heavy  man  as  he  came  forward  and 
seated  himself  by  the  fire.  It  was  only  the  cold  touch  of  hi» 
fingers  on  the  wrist  as  he  felt  my  pulse  that  at  last  aroused 
me. 

'<  Don't  start,  don't  flurry  yourself,"  said  he,  calmly,  to 


AN  UNLOOKED-FOR  MEETING.  607 

me.     "I  am  the  doctor.     I  have  been  to  see  the  other,  and 
I  promised  to  look  in  on  you," 

"  How  is  he?     Is  it  serious?  " 

"It  will  be  a  slow  affair.  It  was  an  ugly  thrust,  —  all 
the  dorsal  muscles  pierced,  but  no  internal  mischief  done." 

"  He  will  certainly  recover  then?  ■' 

''  There  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not.  But  where  is 
this  scratch  of  yours?     Let  me  see  it." 

''It  is  a  nothing,  doctor, — a  mere  nothing.  Pray  take 
no  trouble  about  it." 

"  But  I  must.  I  have  pledged  myself  to  examine  your 
wound ;  and  I  must  keep  my  word." 

"Surely  these  gentlemen  are  scarcely  so  very  anxious 
about  me,"  said  I,  in  some  pique.  "  Not  one  of  them 
vouchsafed  to  see  me  safe  home,  though  I  had  lost  some 
blood,  and  felt  very  faint." 

"  I  did  not  say  it  was  these  gentlemen  sent  me  here,"  said 
he,  dryly. 

"  Then  who  else  knew  anything  about  this  business?  " 

"If  you  must  know,  then,"  said  he,  "it  is  the  English 
Countess  who  is  staying  here,  and  whom  I  have  been  attend- 
ing for  the  last  week.  How  she  came  to  hear  of  this  affair  I 
cannot  tell  you,  for  I  know  it  is  a  secret  to  the  rest  of  the 
house ;  but  she  made  me  promise  to  come  and  see  you,  and 
if  there  was  nothing  in  your  wound  to  forbid  it,  to  bring  you 
over  to  her  dressing-room,  and  present  you  to  her.  And 
now  let  me  look  at  the  injury." 

I  took  off  my  coat,  and,  baring  my  arm,  displayed  a  very 
ugly  thrust,  which,  entering  above  the  wrist,  came  out 
between  the  two  bones  of  the  arm. 

"  Now  I  call  this  the  worst  of  the  two,"  said  he,  examin- 
ing it.     "Does  it  give  you  much  pain?" 

"  Some  uneasiness;  nothing  more.  When  may  I  see  the 
Countess?"  asked  I;  for  an  intense  curiosity  to  meet  her 
had  now  possessed  me. 

"  If  you  like,  you  may  go  at  once ;  not  that  I  can  accom- 
pany you,  for  I  am  off  for  a  distant  visit ;  but  her  rooms  are 
at  the  end  of  this  corridor,  and  you  enter  by  the  conservatory. 
Meanwhile  I  must  bandage  this  arm  in  somewhat  better 
fashion  than  you  have  done." 


608  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

While  he  was  engaged  in  dressing  my  wound,  he  rambled 
on  about  the  reckless  habits  that  made  such  rencontres  pos- 
sible. *'  We  are  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
here,  with  all  its  barbarisms,"  said  he.  "These  young 
fellows  were  vexed  at  seeing  the  notice  you  attracted ;  and 
that  was  to  their  thinking  cause  enough  to  send  you  off  with 
a  damaged* lung  or  a  maimed  limb.  It's  all  well,  however, 
as  long  as  Graf  Hunyadi  does  not  hear  of  it.  But  if  he 
should,  he  '11  turn  them  out,  every  man  of  them,  for  this 
treatment  of  an  Englishman." 

''  Then  we  must  take  care,  sir,  that  he  does  not  hear  of 
it,"  said  I,  half  fiercely,  and  as  though  addressing  my  speech 
especially  to  himself. 

"Not  from  me,  certainly,"  said  he.  "My  doctor's  in- 
stincts always  save  me  from  such  indiscretions." 

"Is  our  Countess  young,  doctor?"  asked  I,  half  jocu- 
larly. 

"Young  and  pretty,  though  one  might  say,  too,  she  has 
been  younger  and  prettier.  If  you  dine  below  stairs  to- 
day, drink  no  wine,  and  get  back  to  your  sofa  as  soon  as 
you  can  after  dinner."     With  this  caution  he  left  me. 

A  heavy  packet  of  letters  had  arrived  from  Fiume, 
containing,  I  surmised,  some  instructions  for  which  I  had 
written ;  but  seeing  that  the  address  was  in  the  cashier's 
handwriting,  I  felt  no  impatience  to  break  the  seal. 

I  dressed  myself  with  unusual  care,  though  the  pain  of 
my  arm  made  the  process  a  very  slow  one ;  and  at  last  set 
out  to  pay  my  visit.  I  passed  along  the  corridor,  through 
the  conservatory,  and  found  myself  at  a  door,  at  which  I 
knocked  twice.  At  last  I  turned  the  handle,  and  entered 
a  small  but  handsomely  furnished  drawing-room,  about 
which  books  and  newspapers  lay  scattered;  and  a  small 
embroidery-frame  near  the  fire  showed  where  she,  who 
was  engaged  with  that  task,  had  lately  been  seated.  As 
I  bent  down  in  some  curiosity  to  examine  a  really  clever 
copy  of  an  altar-piece  of  Albert  Diirer,  a  door  gently 
opened,  and  I  heard  the  rustle  of  a  silk  dress.  I  had 
not  got  time  to  look  round  when,  with  a  cry,  she  rushed 
towards  me,  and  clasped  me  in  her  arms.  It  was  Madame 
Cleremont ! 


AN  UNLOOKED-FOR  MEETING.  609 

"  My  own  dear,  dear  Digby !  "  she  cried,  as  she  kissed 
tne  over  face  and  forehead,  smoothing  back  my  hair  to 
look  at  me,  and  then  falling  again  on  my  neck.  "I  knew 
it  could  be  no  other  when  I  heard  of  you,  darling ;  and 
when  they  told  me  of  your  singing,  I  could  have  sworn  it 
was  yourself." 

I  tried  to  disengage  myself  from  her  embrace,  and  sum- 
moned what  I  could  of  sternness  to  repel  her  caresses.  She 
•dropped  at  my  feet,  and,  clasping  my  hands,  implored  me, 
in  accents  broken  with  passion,  to  forgive  her.  To  see  her 
who  had  once  been  all  that  a  mother  could  have  been  to  me 
in  tenderness  and  care,  who  watched  the  long  hours  of  the 
night  beside  my  sick-bed,  —  to  see  her  there  before  me,  ab- 
ject, self-accused,  and  yet  entreating  forgiveness,  was  more 
than  I  could  bear.  My  nerves,  besides,  had  been  already 
too  tensely  strung ;  and  I  burst  into  a  passion  of  tears  that 
totally  overcame  me.  She  sat  with  her  arm  round  me, 
and  wept. 

With  a  wild  hysterical  rapidit}^  she  poured  forth  a  sort 
of  excuse  of  her  own  conduct.  She  recalled  all  that  I 
had  seen  her  suffer  of  insult  and  shame ;  the  daily  outrages 
passed  upon  her ;  the  slights  which  no  woman  can  or  ought 
to  pardon.  She  spoke  of  her  friendlessness,  her  misery ; 
but,  more  than  all,  her  consuming  desire  to  be  avenged  on 
the  man  who  had  degraded  her.  "Your  father,  I  knew, 
was  the  man  to  do  me  this  justice,"  she  cried  ;  *'  he  did  not 
love  me,  nor  did  I  love  him ;  but  we  both  hated  this  wretch, 
and  it  seemed  little  to  me  what  became  of  me,  if  I  could  but 
compass  his  ruin." 

I  scarcely  followed  her.  I  bethought  me  of  my  poor 
mother,  for  whom  none  had  a  thought,  neither  of  the  wrongs 
done  her,  nor  of  the  sufferings  to  which  she  was  so  remorse- 
lessly consigned. 

"You  do  not  listen  to  me.  You  do  not  hear  me,"  cried 
she,  passionately;  "and  yet  who  has  been  your  friend  as 
I  have?  Who  has  implored  your  father  to  be  just  towards 
you  as  I  have  done  ?  Who  has  hazarded  her  whole  future  in 
maintaining  your  rights,  —  who  but  I?  "  In  a  wild  rhapsody 
of  mingled  passion  and  appeal  she  went  on  to  show  how 
^ir  Roger  insisted  on  presenting  her  everywhere  as  his  wife. 


610  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

Even  at  courts  she  had  been  so  presented,  though  all  the 
terrible  consequences  of  exposure  were  sure  to  ring  over 
the  whole  of  Europe.  The  personal  danger  of  the  step  was 
a  temptation  too  strong  to  resist;  and  the  altercation  and 
vindication  that  must  follow  were  ecstasy  to  him.  He  was 
pitting  himself  against  the  world,  and  he  would  back  himself 
on  the  issue. 

''And,  here,  where  we  are  now,"  cried  I,  "what  is  to 
happen  if  to-morrow  some  stranger  should  arrive  from  Eng- 
land who  knows  your  story,  and  feels  he  owes  it  to  his 
host  to  proclaim  it?" 

"Is  it  not  too  clear  what  is  to  happen?"  shrieked  she; 
"blood,  more  blood, — theirs  or  his,  or  both!  Just  as  he 
struck  a  young  prince  at  Baden  with  a  glove  across  the 
face,  because  he  stared  at  me  too  rudely,  and  shot  him 
afterwards;  his  dearest  tie  to  me  is  the  peril  that  attaches 
to  me.  Do  you  not  know  him,  Digby  ?  Do  you  not  know  the 
insolent  disdain  with  which  he  refuses  to  be  bound  by  what 
other  men  submit  to ;  and  that  when  he  has  said,  '  I  am 
ready  to  stake  my  life  on  it,'  he  believes  he  has  proved 
his  conviction  to  be  a  just  one?" 

Of  my  father's  means,  or  what  remained  to  him  of  for- 
tune, she  knew  nothing.  They  had  often  been  reduced  ta 
almost  want,  and  at  other  times  money  would  flow  freely  in, 
to  be  wasted  and  lavished  with  that  careless  munificence 
that  no  experiences  of  privation  could  ever  teach  prudence. 
We  now  turned  to  speculate  on  what  would  happen  when 
he  came  back  from  this  shooting-party ;  how  he  would  rec- 
ognize me. 

"I  see,"  cried  I:    "you  suspect  he  will  disown  me?" 

"  Not  that,  dear  Digby,"  said  she,  in  some  confusion, 
"  but  he  may  require  —  that  is,  he  may  wish  you  to  con- 
form to  some  plan,  some  procedure  of  his  own." 

"  If  this  should  involve  the  smallest  infraction  of  what  is 
due  to  my  mother,  I'll  refuse,"  said  I,  firmly,  "  and  reject 
as  openly  as  he  dares  to  make  it." 

"And  are  you  ready  to  face  what  may  follow?" 

"  If  you  mean  as  regards  myself,  I  am  quite  ready.  My 
father  threw  me  off  years  ago,  and  I  am  better  able  to  fight 
the  battle  of  life  now  than  I  was  then.     I  ask  nothing:  of 


AN  UNLOOKED-FOR  MEETING.  611 

him,  —  not  even  his  name.  If  you  speak  of  other  conse- 
quences, —  of  what  may  ensue  when  his  hosts  shall  learn 
the  fraud  he  has  practised  on  them  — "  It  was  onl}^  as 
the  fatal  word  fell  from  me  that  I  felt  how  cruelly  I  had 
spoken,  and  I  stopped  and  took  her  hand  in  mine,  saying, 
"  Do  not  be  angry  with  me,  dear  friend,  that  I  have  spoken 
a  bitter  word ;  bear  with  me  for  her  sake,  who  has  none  to 
befriend  her  but  myself." 

She  made  me  no  answer,  but  looked  out  cold  and  stern 
into  vacancy,  her  pale  features  motionless,  not  a  line  or 
lineament  betraying  what  was  passing  within  her. 

'*  Why  remain  here  then  to  provoke  a  catastrophe?  "  cried 
she,  suddenly.  "  If  you  have  come  for  pleasure,  you  see 
enough  to  be  aware  there  is  little  more  awaiting  you." 

*'I  have  not  come  for  pleasure.  I  am  here  to  confer 
with  Count  Hunyadi  on  a  matter  of  business." 

*'And  will  some  paltry  success  in  a  little  peddling  con- 
tract for  the  Count's  wine  or  his  olives  or  his  Indian  corn 
compensate  you  for  the  ruin  you  may  bring  on  your  father? 
Will  it  recompense  you  if  his  blood  be  shed?" 

There  was  a  tone  of  defiant  sarcasm  in  the  way  she  spoke 
these  words  that  showed  me,  if  I  would  not  yield  to  her 
persuasions,  she  would  not  hesitate  to  employ  other  means 
of  coercion.  Perhaps  she  mistook  the  astonishment  my 
face  expressed  for  terror;  for  she  went  on:  *' It  would 
be  well  that  you  thought  twice  over  it  ere  you  make  your 
breach  with  your  father  irreparable.  Remember,  it  is  not  a 
question  of  a  passing  sentimentality  or  a  sympathy,  it  is 
the  whole  story  of  your  life  is  at  issue,  —  if  you  be  any- 
thing, or  anybody,  or  a  nameless  creature,  without  belong- 
ings or  kindred." 

I  sat  for  some  minutes  in  deep  thought.  I  was  not  sure 
whether  I  understood  her  words,  and  that  she  meant  to  say 
it  lay  entirely  with  my  father  to  own  or  disown  me,  as  he 
pleased.  She  seemed  delighted  at  my  embarrassment,  and 
her  \5oice  rung  out  with  its  own  clear  triumphant  cadence, 
as  she  said,  '*  You  begin  at  last  to  see  how  near  the  pre- 
cipice you   have  been  straying." 

"  One  moment,  Madam,"  cried  I.  *'  If  my  mother  be 
Lady  Norcott,  Sir  Roger  cannot  disown  me;    not  to  say 


612  THA.T  BOY   OF  NORCOTT'S. 

that  already,  in  an  open  court,  he  has  maintained  his  right 
over  me  and  declared  me  his  son." 

''  You  are  opening  a  question  I  will  not  touch,  Digby," 
said  she,  gravely,  —  "  your  mother's  marriage.  I  will  only 
say  that  the  ablest  lawyers  your  father  has  consulted  pro- 
nounce it  more  than  questionable." 

"  And  my  father  has  then  entertained  the  project  of  an 
attempt  to  break  it." 

"  This  is  not  fair,"  cried  she,  eagerly;  ''  you  lead  me  on 
from  one  admission  to  another,  till  I  find  myself  revealing 
confidences  to  one  who  at  any  moment  may  avow  himself 
my  enemy." 

I  raised  my  eyes  to  her  face,  and  she  met  my  glance  with 
a  look  cold,  stern,  and  impassive,  as  though  she  would  say, 
*' Choose  your  path  now,  and  accept  me  as  friend  or  foe." 
All  the  winning  softness  of  her  manner,  all  those  engaging 
coquetries  of  look  and  gesture,  of  which  none  was  more 
mistress,  were  gone,  and  another  and  a  very  different  nature 
had  replaced  them. 

This,  then,  was  one  of  those  women  all  tenderness  and 
softness  and  fascination,  but  who  behind  this  mask  have 
the  fierce  nature  of  the  tigress.  Could  she  be  the  same  I 
had  seen  so  submissive  under  all  the  insolence  of  her  brutal 
husband,  bearing  his  scoffs  and  his  sarcasms  without  a 
word  of  reply?  Was  it  that  these  cruelties  had  at  last 
evoked  this  stern  spirit,  and  that  another  temperament  had 
been  generated  out  of  a  nature  broken  down  and  demoralized 
by  ill  treatment? 

*' Shall  I  tell  you  what  I  think  you  ought  to  do?"  asked 
she,  calmly.  I  nodded  assent.  *'Sit  down  there,  then," 
continued  she,  "and  write  these  few  lines  to  your  father, 
and  let  him  have  them  before  he  returns  here." 

"First  of  all,  I  cannot  write  just  now;  1  have  had  a  slight 
accident  to  my  right  arm." 

''I  know,"  said  she,  smiling  dubiously.  *'You  hurt  it  in 
the  riding-school;  but  it 's  a  mere  nothing,  is  it  not?". 

I  made  a  gesture  of  assent,  not  altogether  pleased  the 
while  at  the  little  sympathy  she  vouchsafed  me,  and  the 
insignificance  she  ascribed  to  my  wound. 

"  Shall  I  write  for  you,  then  ?  you  can  sign  it  afterwards. " 


AN  UNLOOKED-FOR  MEETING.  613 

'*Let  me  first  know  what  you  would  have  me  say." 

"Dear  father —     You  always  addressed  him  that  way?  '* 

"Yes." 

"Dear  father,  — I  have  been  here  some  days,  awaiting 
Count  Hunyadi's  return  to  transact  some  matters  of  busi- 
ness with  him,  and  have  by  a  mere  accident  learned  that 
you  are  amongst  his  guests.  As  I  do  not  know  how,  to  what 
extent,  or  in  what  capacity  it  may  be  your  pleasure  to 
recognize  me,  or  whether  it  might  not  chime  better  with 
your  convenience  to  ignore  me  altogether,  I  write  now  to 
submit  myself  entirely  to  your  will  and  guidance,  being  in 
this,  as  in  all  things,  your  dutiful  and  obedient  son." 

The  words  came  from  her  pen  as  rapidly  as  her  fingers 
could  move  across  the  paper;  and  as  she  finished,  she 
pushed  it  towards  me,  saying,  — 

"There  —  put '  Digby  Norcott '  there,  and  it  is  all  done!  " 

"This  is  a  matter  to  think  over,"  said  I,  gravely.  "I 
may  be  compromising  other  interests  than  my  own  by  sign- 
ing this." 

"Those  Jews  of  yours  have  imbued  you  well  with  their 
cautious  spirit,  I  see,"  said  she,  scoflSngly. 

"They  have  taught  me  no  lessons  I  am  ashamed  of, 
Madam,"  said  I,  reddening  with  anger. 

"I  declare  I  don't  know  you  as  the  Digby  of  long  ago! 
I  fancied  I  did,  when  I  heard  those  ladies  coming  upstairs 
each  night,  so  charmed  with  all  your  graceful  gifts,  and  so 
eloquent  over  all  your  fascinations ;  and  now,  as  you  stand 
there,  word-splitting  and  phrase- weighing,  canvassing  what 
it  might  cost  you  to  do  this  or  where  it  would  lead  you  to 
say  that,  I  ask  myself.  Is  this  the  boy  of  whom  his  father 
said,  *  Above  all  things  he  shall  be  a  gentleman  '  ?  " 

"To  one  element  of  that  character.  Madam,  I  will  try  and 
preserve  my  claim,  —  no  provocation  shall  drive  me  to  utter 
a  rudeness  to  a  lady." 

"This  is  less  breeding  than  calculation,  young  gentleman. 
I  read  such  natures  as  yours  as  easily  as  a  printed  book." 

"I  ask  nothing  better,  Madam;  my  only  fear  would  be 
that  you  should  mistake  me,  and  imagine  that  any  deference 
to  my  father's  views  would  make  me  forget  my  mother's 
rights." 


614  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

"So  then,"  cried  she,  with  a  mocking  laugh,  "you  have 
got  your  courage  up  so  far,  —  you  dare  me !  Be  advised, 
however,  and  do  not  court  such  an  unequal  contest.  I  have 
but  to  choose  in  which  of  a  score  of  ways  I  could  crush  you, 
—  do  you  mark  me?  crush  you!  You  will  not  always  be 
as  lucky  as  you  were  this  morning  in  the  riding-school." 

"Great  heaven!"  cried  I,  "was  this,  then,  of  your 
devising  ?  " 

"You  begin  to  have  a  glimpse  of  whom  you  have  to  deal 
with?  Go  back  to  your  room  and  reflect  on  that  knowledge, 
and  if  it  end  in  persuading  you  to  quit  this  place  at  once, 
and  never  return  to  it,  it  will  be  a  wise  resolve." 

I  was  too  much  occupied  with  the  terrible  fact  that  she 
had  already  conspired  against  my  life  to  heed  her  words  of 
counsel,  and  I  stood  there  stunned  and  confused. 

In  the  look  of  scorn  and  hate  she  threw  on  me,  she  seemed 
to  exult  over  my  forlorn  and  bewildered  condition. 

"I  scarcely  think  there  is  any  need  to  prolong  this  inter- 
view," said  she,  at  last,  with  an  easy  smile;  "each  of  us  is 
by  this  time  aware  of  the  kindly  sentiments  of  the  other;  is 
it  not  so  ?  " 

"I  am  going,  Madam,"  I  stammered  out;  "good-bye." 

She  made  a  slight  movement,  as  I  thought,  towards  me; 
but  it  was  in  reality  the  prelude  to  a  deep  courtesy,  while  in 
her  sweetest  of  accents  she  whispered,  "^^  revoir^  Monsieur 
Digby,  au  revoir"     I  bowed  deeply  and  withdrew. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

HASTY   TIDINGS. 

Of  all  the  revulsions  of  feeling  that  can  befall  the  heart,  I 
know  of  none  to  compare  in  poignant  agony  with  the  sudden 
consciousness  that  you  are  hated  where  once  you  were 
loved ;  that  where  once  you  had  turned  for  consolation  or 
sympathy  you  have  now  nothing  to  expect  but  coldness  and 
•distrust;  that  the  treasure  of  affection  on  which  you  have 
counted  against  the  day  of  adversity  had  proved  bankrupt, 
and  nothing  remained  of  all  its  bright  hopes  and  promises 
but  bitter  regrets  and  sorrowful  repinings. 

It  was  in  the  very  last  depth  of  this  spirit  I  now  locked 
myself  in  my  room  to  determine  what  I  should  do,  by  what 
course  I  should  shape  my  future.  I  saw  the  stake  for 
which  Madame  Cleremont  was  playing.  She  had  resolved 
that  my  mother's  marriage  should  be  broken,  and  she  herself 
declared  Lady  Norcott.  That  my  father  might  be  brought 
to  accede  to  such  a  plan  was  by  no  means  improbable.  Its 
extravagance  and  its  enormity  would  have  been  great 
inducements,  had  he  no  other  interest  in  the  matter. 

I  began  to  canvass  with  myself  how  persons  poor  and 
friendless  could  possibly  meet  the  legal  battle  which  this 
question  should  originate,  and  how  my  mother,  in  her  desti- 
tution and  poverty,  could  contend  against  the  force  of  the 
wealth  that  would  be  opposed  to  her.  It  had  only  been  by 
the  united  efforts  of  her  relatives  and  friends,  all  eager  to 
support  her  in  such  a  cause,  that  she  had  been  enabled  to 
face  the  expenses  of  the  suit  my  father  had  brought  on  the 
question  of  my  guardianship.  How  could  she  again  sustain 
a.  like  charge?  Was  it  likely  that  her  present  condition 
would  enable  her  to  fee  leaders  on  circuit  and  bar  magnates, 


616  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

to  pay  the  costs  of  witnesses,  and  all  the  endless  outgoings 
of  the  law? 

So  long  as  I  lived,  I  well  knew  my  poor  mother  would 
compromise  none  of  the  rights  that  pertained  to  me ;  but  if 
I  could  be  got  rid  of,  —  and  the  event  of  the  morning  shot 
through  my  mind,  —  some  arrangement  with  her  might  not 
be  impossible,  —  at  least,  it  was  open  to  them  to  think  so ; 
and  I  could  well  imagine  that  they  would  build  on  such  a 
foundation.  It  was  not  easy  to  imagine  a  woman  like 
Madame  Cleremont,  a  person  of  the  most  attractive  manners, 
beautiful,  gifted,  and  graceful,  capable  of  a  great  crime;, 
but  she  herself  had  shown  me  more  than  once  in  fiction 
the  portraiture  of  an  individual  who,  while  shrinking  with 
horror  from  the  coarse  contact  of  guilt,  would  willingly  set 
the  springs  in  motion  which  ultimately  conduce  to  the  most 
appalling  disasters.  I  remember  even  her  saying  to  me  one 
day,  ''It  is  in  watching  the  terrible  explosions  their  schemes 
have  ignited,  that  cowards  learn  to  taste  what  they  fancy 
to  be  the  ecstasy  of  courage." 

While  I  thought  what  a  sorry  adversary  I  should  prove 
against  such  a  woman,  with  all  the  wiles  of  her  nature,  and 
all  the  seductions  by  which  she  could  display  them,  my  eyes 
fell  upon  the  packet  from  Fiume,  which  still  lay  with  its 
seal  unbroken.  I  broke  it  open  half  carelessly.  It  con- 
tained an  envelope  marked  "Letters,"  and  the  following 
note :  — 

"  Herr  Owen,  —  With  this  you  are  informed  that  the  house  of 
Hodnig  and  Oppovich  has  failed,  dockets  of  bankruptcy  having  been 
yesterday  declared  against  that  firm;  the  usual  assignees  will  be 
duly  appointed  by  the  court  to  liquidate,  on  such  terms  as  the  estate 
permits.  Present  liabilities  are  currently  stated  as  below  eight 
millions  of  florins.     Actual  property  will  not  meet  half  that  sum. 

"  Further  negotiations  regarding  the  Hunyadi  contract  on  your 
part  are  consequently  unnecessary,  seeing  that  the  most  favorable 
conditions  you  could  obtain  would  in  no  wise  avert  or  even  lessen 
the  blow  that  has  fallen  on  the  house. 

"  I  am  directed  to  enclose  you  by  bill  the  sum  of  two  hundred 
and  eighteen  florins  twenty-seven  kreutzers,  which  at  the  current 
exchange  will  pay  your  salary  to  the  end  of  the  present  quarter,  and 
also  to  state  that,  having  duly  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  this  sum 
to  me  by  letter,  you  are  to  consider  yourself  free  of  all  engagement 


HASTY  TIDINGS.  '      617 

to  the  house.  I  am  also  instructed  to  say  that  your  zeal  and  pro- 
bity will  be  duly  attested  when  any  reference  is  addressed  to  the 
managers  of  this  estate. 

"  I  am,  with  accustomed  esteem  and  respect, 
"  Your  devoted  servant, 

"Jacob  Ulrich. 

"  P.  S.  Herr  Ignaz  is,  happily  for  him,  in  a  condition  that  ren- 
ders him  unconscious  of  his  calamity.  The  family  has  retired  for 
the  present  to  the  small  cottage  near  the  gate  of  the  Abazzia  Villa, 
called  'Die  Hutte,'  but  desires  complete  privacy,  and  declines  all 
condolences.  —  J.  U. 

"  2nd  P.  S.  The  enclosed  letters  have  arrived  here  during  your 
absence.'* 

So  intensely  imbued  was  my  mind  with  suspicion  and  dis- 
trust, that  it  was  not  till  after  long  and  careful  examination 
I  satisfied  myself  that  this  letter  was  genuine,  and  that  ita 
contents  might  be  taken  as  true.  The  packet  it  enclosed 
would,  however,  have  resolved  all  doubt;  they  were  three 
letters  from  my  dear  mother.  Frequent  reference  was  made 
to  other  letters  which  had  never  reached  me,  and  in  which 
it  was  clear  the  mode  in  which  she  had  learned  my  address 
was  explained.  She  also  spoke  of  Sara  as  of  one  she 
knew  by  correspondence,  and  gave  me  to  understand  how 
she  was  following  every  little  humble  incident  of  my  daily 
life  with  loving  interest  and  affection.  She  enjoined  me  by 
all  means  to  devote  myself  heartily  and  wholly  to  those  who 
had  befriended  me  so  generously,  and  to  merit  the  esteem 
of  that  good  girl,  who,  caring  nothing  for  herself,  gave  her 
heart  and  soul  to  the  service  of  her  father. 

"I  have  told  you  so  much,"  said  she,  "of  myself  in 
former  letters  "  (these  I  never  saw)  'Hhat  I  shall  not  weary 
you  with  more.  You  know  why  I  gave  up  the  school,  and 
through  what  reasonings  I  consented  to  call  myself  Lady 
Norcott,  though  in  such  poverty  as  mine  the  assumption 
of  a  title  only  provoked  ridicule.  Mr.  McBride,  however, 
persuaded  me  that  a  voluntary  surrender  of  my  position 
might  be  made  terrible  use  of  against  me,  should  —  what  I 
cannot  believe  —  the  attempt  ever  be  made  to  question  the 
legality  of  my  marriage  with  your  father. 

"It  has  been  so  constantly  repeated,  however,  that  Sir 


618  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

Roger  means  to  marry  this  lady,  —  some  say  they  are 
already  married,  —  that  I  have  had  careful  abstracts  made 
of  the  registry,  and  every  detail  duly  certified  which  can 
establish  your  legitimacy,  —  not  that  I  can  bring  myself 
to  believe  your  father  would  ever  raise  that  question. 
Strangely  enough,  my  allowance,  left  unpaid  for  several 
years,  was  lately  resumed,  and  Foster  and  Wall  received 
orders  to  acknowledge  my  drafts  on  them,  for  what,  I  con- 
cluded, were  meant  to  cover  all  the  arrears  due.  As  I  had 
already  tided  over  these  years  of  trial  and  pressure,  I  refused 
all  save  the  sum  due  for  the  current  year,  and  begged  to 
learn  Sir  Roger's  address  that  I  might  write  to  him.  To 
this  they  replied  *  that  they  had  no  information  to  give  me 
on  the  subject;  that  their  instructions,  as  regarded  pay- 
ments to  me,  came  to  them  from  the  house  of  Rodiger,  in 
Frankfort,  and  in  the  manner  and  terms  already  communi- 
cated to  me, '  —  all  showing  me  that  the  whole  was  a  matter 
of  business,  into  which  no  sentiment  was  to  enter,  or  be 
deemed  capable  of  entering." 

It  was  about  this  period  my  mother  came  to  learn  my 
address,  and  she  avowed  that  all  other  thoughts  and  cares 
were  speedily  lost  in  the  whirlpool  of  joy  these  tidings  swept 
around  her.  Her  eagerness  to  see  me  grew  intense,  but 
was  tempered  by  the  fear  lest  her  selfish  anxiety  might 
prejudice  me  in  that  esteem  I  had  already  won  from  my 
employers,  of  whom,  strangely  enough,  she  spoke  freely  and 
familiarly,  as  though  she  had  known  them. 

The  whole  tone  of  these  letters  —  and  I  read  them  over  and 
over  —  calmed  and  reassured  me.  Full  of  personal  details, 
they  were  never  selfish  in  its  unpleasant  sense.  They  often 
spoke  of  poverty,  but  rather  as  a  thing  to  be  baffled  by  good- 
humored  contrivance  or  rendered  endurable  by  habit  than 
as  matter  for  complaint  and  bewailment.  Little  dashes  of 
light-heartedness  would  now  and  then  break  the  dark  som- 
breness  of  the  picture,  and  show  how  her  spirit  was  yet  alive 
to  life  and  its  enjoyments.  Above  all,  there  was  no  croak- 
ing, no  foreboding.  She  had  lived  through  some  years  of 
trial  and  sorrow,  and  if  the  future  had  others  as  gloomy  in 
store,  it  was  time  enough  when  they  came  to  meet  their 
exigencies. 


HASTY  TIDINGS.  619 

What  a  blessing  was  it  to  me  to  get  these  at  such  a  time ! 
I  no  longer  felt  myself  alone  and  isolated  in  the  world. 
There  was,  I  now  knew,  a  bank  of  affection  at  my  disposal 
nt  which  I  could  draw  at  will ;  and  what  an  object  for  my 
imitation  was  that  fine  courage  of  hers,  that  took  defeats  as 
mere  passing  shadows,  and  was  satisfied  to  fight  on  to  the 
«nd,  ever  hopeful  and  ever  brave. 

How  I  would  have  liked  to  return  to  Madame  Cleremont, 
anci  read  her  some  passages  of  these  letters,  and  said,  "And 
this  is  the  woman  you  seek  to  dethrone,  and  whose  place 
yoii  would  fill!  This  is  she  whose  rival  you  aspire  to  be. 
What  think  you  of  the  contest  now  ?  Which  of  you  should 
prove  the  winner?  Is  it  with  a  nature  like  this  you  would 
like  to  measure  yourself  ?  " 

How  I  would  have  liked  to  have  dared  her  to  such  a  com- 
bat, and  boldly  declared  that  I  would  make  my  father  him- 
self the  umpire  as  to  the  worthier.  As  to  her  hate  or  her 
vengeance,  she  had  as  much  as  promised  me  both,  but  I 
defied  them ;  and  I  believed  I  even  consulted  my  safety  by 
open  defiance.  As  I  thus  stimulated  myself  with  passion- 
ate counsels,  and  burned  with  eagerness  for  the  moment  T 
might  avow  them,  I  flung  open  my  window  for  fresh  air, 
for  my  excitement  had  risen  to  actual  fever. 

It  was  very  dark  without.  Night  had  set  in  about  two 
hours,  but  no  stars  had  yet  shone  out,  and  a  thick  impene- 
trable blackness  pervaded  everJ^^here.  Some  peasants  were 
shovelling  the  snow  in  the  court^eneath,  making  a  track 
from -the  gate  to  the  house-door,  and  here  and  there  a  dimly 
burning  lantern  attached  to  a  pole  would  show  where  the 
work  was  being  carried  out.  As  it  was  about  the  time  of 
the  evening  when  travellers  were  wont  to  arrive,  the  labor 
was  pressed  briskly  forward,  and  I  could  hear  an  overseer's 
voice  urging  the  men  to  increased  zeal  and  activity. 

"  There  has  been  a  snow-mountain  fallen  at  Miklos,  they 
say,"  ctied  one,  "and  none  can  pass  the  road  for  many  a 
day.'' 

"If  they  cannot  come  from  Pesth,  they  can  come  from 
Hermanstadt,  from  Temesvar,  from  Klausenberg.  Guests 
can  come  from  any  quarter,"  cried  the  overseer. 

I  listened  with  amusement  to  the  discussion  that  followed ; 


620  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

the  various  sentiments  they  uttered  as  to  whether  this  sys- 
tem of  open  hospitality  raised  the  character  of  a  country,  or 
was  not  a  heavy  mulct  out  of  the  rights  which  the  local  poor 
possessed  on  the  properties  of  their  rich  neighbors. 

*' Every  flask  of  Tokay er  drunk  at  the  upper  table,"  cried 
one,  *'is  an  eimer  of  Mediasch  lost  to  the  poor  man." 

"That  is  the  true  way  to  look  at  it,"  cried  another.  "We 
want  neither  Counts  nor  Tokayer." 

'*That  was  a  Saxon  dog  barked  there!"  called  out  the 
overseer.  *'No  Hungarian  ever  reviled  what  his  land  is 
most  famed  for." 

"Here  come  travellers  now,"  shouted  one  from  the  gate. 
"I  hear  horses  at  full  speed  on  the  Klausenberg  road." 

"Lanterns  to  the  gate,  and  stand  free  of  the  road,"  cried 
the  overseer;  and  now  the  scene  became  one  of  striking 
excitement,  as  the  lights  flitted  rapidly  from  place  to  place ; 
the  great  arch  of  the  gate  being  accurately  marked  in  out- 
line, and  the  deep  cleft  in  the  snow  lined  on  either  side  by 
lanterns  suspended  between  posts. 

"They  're  coming  at  a  furious  pace,"  cried  one;  "they  've 
passed  the  toll-bridge  at  full  gallop." 

"Then  it's  the  Count  himself,"  chimed  in  another. 
"There  's  none  but  he  could  force  the  toll-bar." 

"It's  a  country  wagon,  with  four  juckers',  and  here  it 
comes ; "  and  as  he  spoke  four  sweating  horses  swung 
through  the  gateway,  and  came  full  speed  into  the  court. 

"Where  is  Kitzlach?  Call  Kitzlach!  call  the  doctor!" 
screamed  a  voice  from  the  wagon.  "Tell  him  to  come 
down  at  once." 

"Out  with  the  juckers,  and  harness  a  fresh  team,"  cried 
the  same  voice.  And  now,  as  he  descended  from  the 
wagon,  he  was  surrounded  with  eager  figures,  all  anxious  to 
hear  his  tidings.  As  I  could  gather  nothing  from  where 
I  was,  I  hastily  threw  on  a  fur  coat,  and  made  my  way  down 
to  the  court.  I  soon  learned  the  news.  A  terrible  disaster 
had  befallen  the  hunting-party.  A  she-boar,  driven  frantic 
by  her  wounds,  had  dashed  suddenly  into  the  midst  of  them, 
slightly  wounded  the  Count  and  his  head  Jager,  but  danger- 
ously one  of  the  guests,  who  had  sustained  a  single  combat 
with  her  and  killed  her;   not,  however,  without  grievous 


HASTY  TIDINGS.  621 

injury  to  himself,  for  a  large  blood-vessel  had  been  severed ; 
all  the  efforts  to  stanch  Vhich  had  been  but  half  successful. 

"Have  you  your  tourniquet,  doctor?"  cried  the  youth 
from  a  wagon,  as  the  equipage  was  turned  again  to  the 
gate. 

"Everything  —  everything." 

"  You  '11  want  any  quantity  of  lint  and  bandages  j  and, 
remember,  nothing  can  be  had  down  yonder." 

"Make  your  mind  easy!  I've  forgotten  nothing.  Just 
keep  your  beasts  quiet  till  I  get  up." 

I  drew  nigh  as  he  was  about  to  mount,  and  whispered  a 
word  in  his  ear. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  he,  gruffly.  "I  can't  see  why  you 
should  ask." 

"Why  don't  you  get  up?"  cried  the  youth,  impatiently. 

"There's  a  young  fellow  here  importuning  me  to  ask 
you  for  a  place  in  the  wagon.  He  thinks  he  knows  this 
stranger. " 

"Let  him  get  in  at  once,  then;  and  let 's  have  no  more 
delays."  And  scarcely  had  we  scrambled  to  our  places, 
than  the  loud  whip  resounded  with  the  quick,  sharp  report 
of  pistol-shots,  and  the  beasts  sprung  out  at  once,  rushed 
through  the  narrow  gateway,  and  were  soon  stretching  along 
at  their  topmost  pace  through  impenetrable  blackness. 

Crouching  in  the  straw  at  the  bottom  of  the  wagon,  I 
crept  as  closely  a^s  I  could  to  where  the  doctor  was  seated 
beside  the  young  man  who  drove.  I  was  eager  to  hear  what 
I  could  of  the  incident  that  had  befallen ;  but,  to  my  great 
disappointment,  they  spoke  in  Hungarian,  and  all  I  could 
gather,  from  certain  dropping  expressions,  was  that  both 
the  Count  and  his  English  friend  had  been  engaged  in  some 
rivalry  of  personal  daring,  and  that  the  calamity  had  come 
'Of  this  insane  contest.  "  They  '11  never  say  '  Mad  as  a 
Hunyadi '  any  longer  up  at  Lees.  They  '11  say  '  Mad  as  an 
Englishman.' " 

The  young  fellow  spoke  in  wondrous  admiration  of  the 
wounded  man's  courage  and  coolness,  and  described  how 
he  had  taught  them  to  pass  a  light  ligature  round  his  thigh, 
and  tighten  it  further  by  inserting  a  stick  to  act  as  a  screw. 
•"Up  to  that,"  said  he,  "he  had  been  bleeding  like  a  tapped 


622  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

Wein-f ass ;  and  then  he  made  them  give  him  large  goblets 
of  strong  Bordeaux,  to  sustain  him." 

"He  's  a  bold-hearted  fellow  then?  "  said  the  doctor. 

"  The  Count  declares  he  has  never  met  his  equal.  They 
were  alone  together  when  I  started,  for  the  Englishman  said 
he  had  something  for  the  Count's  own  ear,  and  begged  the 
others  to  withdraw." 

**So  he  thought  himself  in  danger?  " 

"  That  he  did.  I  saw  him  myself  take  off  a  large  signet 
ring  and  lay  it  on  the  table  beside  his  watch,  and  he  pointed 
them  out  to  Hunyadi  as  he  came  in,  and  said  something  in 
English;  but  the  Count  rejoined  quickly,  'No,  no.  It's 
not  come  to  that  yet. '  " 

While  they  spoke  slowly,  I  was  able  to  gather  at  least 
the  meaning  of  what  passed  between  them,  but  I  lost  all 
clew  so  soon  as  they  talked  eagerly  and  rapidly,  so  that, 
confused  by  the  unmeaning  sounds,  and  made  drowsy  by 
the  fresh  night-air,  I  at  last  fell  off  into  a  heavy  sleep. 

I  was  awakened  by  the  noise  of  the  wheels  over  a  paved 
street.  I  looked  up,  and  saw,  by  the  struggling  light  of  a 
breaking  dawn,  that  we  were  in  a  village  where  a  number 
of  people  were  awaiting  us.  "  Have  you  brought  the 
doctor?"  *' Where  is  the  doctor?"  cried  several  together; 
and  he  was  scarcely  permitted  to  descend,  so  eager  were 
they  to  seize  and  carry  him  off. 

A  dense  crowd  was  gathered  before  the  door  of  a  small 
two-storied  house,  into  which  the  doctor  now  disappeared ; 
and  I,  mixing  with  the  mass,  tried  as  best  I  might,  to  ask 
how  the  wounded  man  was  doing,  and  what  hopes  there 
were  of  his  life.  While  I  thus  went  from  one  to  another 
vainly  endeavoring  to  make  my  question  intelligible,  I 
heard  a  loud  voice  cry  out  in  German,  ''Where  is  the  young 
fellow  who  says  he  knows  him  ?  " 

"Here,"  cried  I,  boldly.  "I  believe  I  know  him, — I 
am  almost  sure  I  do." 

"Come  to  the  door,  then,  and  look  in;  do  not  utter  a 
word,"  cried  a  tall  dark  man  I  soon  knew  to  be  Count 
Hunyadi.  "Mind,  sir,  for  your  life's  sake,  that  you  don't 
disturb  him." 

I  crept  on  tiptoe  to  the  slightly  opened  door,  and  looked 


HASTY  TIDINGS.  625 

in.  There,  on  a  mattress  on  the  floor,  a  tall  man  was. 
lying,  while  the  doctor  knelt  beside  him,  and  seemed  ta 
press  with  all  his  weight  on  his  thigh.  The  sick  man 
slowly  turned  his  face  to  the  light,  and  it  was  my  father ! 
My  knees  trembled,  my  sight  grew  dim;  strength  suddenly 
forsook  me,  and  I  fell  powerless  and  senseless  to  the  ground. 

They  were  bathing  my  face  and  temples  with  vinegar  and 
water  to  rally  me  when  the  doctor  came  to  say  the  sick  man 
desired  to  see  me.  In  a  moment  the  blood  rushed  to  my 
head,  and  I  cried  out,  ''I  am  ready." 

"Be  calm,  sir.  A  mere  word,  a  gesture,  may  prove  fatal 
to  him,"  whispered  the  doctor  to  me.  "His  life  hangs  on  a. 
thread." 

Count  Hunyadi  was  kneeling  beside  my  father,  and  evi- 
dently trying  to  catch  some  faint  words  he  was  saying,  as  I 
stole  forward  and  knelt  down  by  the  bedside.  My  father 
turned  his  eyes  slowly  round  till  they  fell  upon  me,  —  when 
their  expression  suddenly  changed  from  the  look  of  weary 
apathy  to  a  stare  of  full  and  steadfast  meaning,  —  intense, 
indeed,  in  significance;  but  I  dare  not  say  that  this  con- 
veyed anything  like  love  or  affection  for  me. 

"Come  closer,"  cried  he,  in  a  hoarse  whisper.  "It  is 
Digby,  is  it  not?  This  boy  is  my  son,  Hunyadi,"  he  said, 
with  an  increased  effort.  "Give  me  your  hand."  He  took 
my  trembling  fingers  in  his  cold  moist  hand,  and  passed 
the  large  signet  ring  over  my  second  finger.  "He  is  my 
heir.  Gentlemen,"  he  cried,  in  a  tone  at  once  haughty  and 
broken  by  debility,  "my  name,  my  title,  my  fortune  all  pass 
to  him.     By  to-morrow  you  will  call  him  Sir  Digby  —  " 

He  could  not  finish;  his  lips  moved  without  a  sound.  I 
was  conscious  of  no  more  than  being  drawn  heavily  across 
the  floor,  not  utterly  bereft  of  reason,  but  dulled  and 
stunned  as  if  from  the  effect  of  a  heavy  blow. 

When  I  was  able,  I  crept  back  to  the  room.  It  was  now 
the  decline  of  day.  A  large  white  cavalry  cloak  covered  the 
body.  I  knelt  down  beside  it,  and  cried  with  a  bursting: 
heart  till  late  into  the  night. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

IN   SORROW. 

Of  what  followed  that  night  of  mourning  I  remember  but 
snatches  and  brief  glimpses.  There  is  nothing  more  posi- 
tively torturing  to  the  mind  in  sorrow  than  the  way  in  which 
the  mere  excitement  of  grief  robs  the  intellect  of  all  power 
of  perspective,  and  gives  to  the  smallest,  meanest  incidents 
the  prominence  and  force  of  great  events.  It  is  as  though 
the  jar  given  to  the  nervous  system  had  untuned  us  for  the 
entire  world,  and  all  things  come  amiss.  I  am  sure,  in- 
deed, I  know  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  have  met 
more  gentle  and  considerate  kindness  than  I  now  experi- 
enced on  every  hand,  and  yet  I  lived  in  a  sort  of  feverish 
irritability,  as  though  expecting  each  moment  to  have  my 
position  questioned,  and  my  right  to  be  there  disputed. 

In  obedience  to  the  custom  of  the  country,  it  was  necessary 
that  the  funeral  should  take  place  within  forty-eight  hours 
after  death,  and  though  all  the  details  had  been  carefully 
looked  to  by  the  Count's  orders,  certain  questions  still 
should  be  asked  of  me,  and  my  leave  obtained  for  certain 
acts. 

The  small  church  of  Hunyadi-Naglos  was  fixed  on  for  the 
last  resting-place.  It  contained  the  graves  of  eight  genera- 
tions of  Hunyadis,  and  to  accord  a  place  amongst  them  to  a 
stranger,  and  a  Protestant,  was  deemed  a  high  honor. 
Affliction  seemed  to  have  developed  in  me  all  the  pride  of 
my  race,  for  I  can  recall  with  what  sullen  hauteur  I  heard 
of  this  concession,  and  rather  took  it  as  a  favor  accorded 
than  accepted.  An  overweening  sense  of  all  that  my 
father  himself  would  have  thought  due  to  his  memory  was 
on  me,  and  I  tortured  my  mind  to  think  that  no  mark  of 


IN  SORROW.  625 

honor  he  would  have  desired  should  be  forgotten.  As  a 
soldier,  he  had  a  right  to  a  soldier's  funeral,  and  a 
"  Honved  "  battalion,  with  their  band,  received  orders  to  be 
present.  For  miles  around  the  landed  gentry  and  nobles 
poured  in,  with  hosts  of  followers.  Next  to  a  death  in 
battle,  there  was  no  such  noble  death  as  in  the  hunting-field, 
and  the  splendid  prowess  of  my  father's  achievement  had 
won  him  imperishable  honor. 

All  was  conducted  as  if  for  the  funeral  of  a  magnate  of 
Hungary.  The  titles  and  rank  of  the  deceased  were  pro- 
claimed aloud  as  we  entered  the  graveyard,  and  each  whose 
station  entitled  him  to  be  thought  a  friend  came  forward 
and  kissed  the  pall  as  the  body  was  borne  in. 

One  part  of  the  ceremony  overcame  me  altogether.  When 
the  third  round  of  musketry  had  rung  out  over  the  grave,  a 
solemn  pause  of  half  a  minute  or  so  was  to  ensue,  then  the 
band  was  to  burst  out  with  the  first  bars  of  "God  preserve 
the  Emperor ;  '*  and  while  a  wild  cheer  arose,  I  was  to 
spring  into  the  saddle  of  my  father's  horse,  which  had  been 
led  close  after  the  coffin,  and  to  join  the  cheer.  This  sol- 
dier declaration  that  death  was  but  a  passing  terror,  re- 
volted me  to  the  heart,  and  I  over  and  over  asserted  I  could 
not  do  this.  They  would  not  yield,  however;  they  regarded 
my  reasons  as  childish  sentimentality,  and  half  impugned 
my  courage  besides.  I  do  not  know  why  I  gave  in,  nor 
am  I  sure  I  ever  did  yield ;  but  when  the  heavy  smoke  of 
the  last  round  slowly  rose  over  the  bier,  I  felt  myself  jerked 
up  into  the  saddle  of  a  horse  that  plunged  wildly  and 
struck  out  madly  in  affright.  With  a  rider's  instinct,  I 
held  my  seat,  and  even  managed  the  bounding  animal  with 
the  hand  of  a  practised  rider.  Four  fearful  bounds  I  sat 
unshaken,  while  the  air  rang  with  the  hoarse  cheer  of  some 
thousand  voices,  and  then  a  sickness  like  death  itself  gath- 
ered over  my  heart,  —  a  sense  of  horror,  of  where  I  was  and 
why,  came  over  me.  My  arms  fell  powerless  to  my  sides, 
and  I  rolled  from  the  saddle  and  fell  senseless  and  stunned 
to  the  ground. 

Without  having  received  serious  injury,  I  was  too  ill  to  be 
removed  from  the  little  village  of  Naglos,  where  I  was  con- 
fined to  bed  for  ten  days.     The  doctor  remained  with  me 

40 


626  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

for  some  days,  and  came  again  and  again  to  visit  me 
afterwards.  The  chief  care  of  me,  however,  devolved  on 
my  father's  valet,  a  smart  young  Swiss,  whom  I  had  diffi- 
culty in  believing  not  to  be  English,  so  perfectly  did  he 
speak  our  language. 

I  soon  saw  this  fellow  was  thoroughly  conversant  with  all 
my  father's  history,  and,  whether  in  his  confidence  or  not, 
knew  everything  that  concerned  him,  and  understood  his 
temperament  and  nature  to  perfection.  There  was  much 
adroitness  in  the  way  in  which  he  showed  me  this,  without 
ever  shocking  my  pride  or  offending  my  taste  by  any  display 
of  a  supposed  influence.  Of  his  consummate  tact  I  need 
give  but  one,  —  a  very  slight  instance,  it  is  true,  but  enough 
to  denote  the  man.  He,  in  addressing  me  as  Sir  Digby,  re- 
marked how  the  sound  of  my  newly  acquired  title  seemed  to 
recall  my  father  to  my  mind  at  once,  and  ever  after  limited 
himself  to  saying  simply  ^*sir,"  which  attracted  no  attention 
from  me. 

Another  Instance  of  his  address  I  must  record  also.  I 
had  got  my  writing-desk  on  the  bed,  and  was  writing  to 
my  mother,  to  whom  I  had  already  despatched  two  tele- 
graphic messages,  but  as  yet  received  no  reply.  *'I  beg 
pardon,  sir,"  said  La  Grange,  entering  in  his  usual  noise- 
less fashion;  "but  I  thought  you  would  like  to  know  that 
my  Lady  has  left  Schloss  Hunyadi.  She  took  her  departure 
last  night  for  Pesth." 

''You  mean  — "  I  faltered,  not  really  knowing  what  I 
would  say. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  he,  thoroughly  aware  of  what  was  pass- 
ing in  my  mind.  "  She  admitted  no  one,  not  even  the 
doctor,  and  started  at  last  with  only  a  few  words  of  adieu 
in  writing  for  the  Countess." 

"  What  impression  has  this  left?  How  are  they  speaking 
of  her  ? "  asked  I,  blurting  out  against  my  will  what  was 
working  within  me. 

"I  believe,  sir,"  said  he,  with  a  very  faint  smile,  "they 
lay  it  all  to  English  ways  and  habits.  At  least  I  have 
heard  no  other  comments  than  such  as  would  apply  to 
these." 

"  Be  sure  that  you  give  rise  to  no  others,"  said  I,  sternly. 


IN  SORROW.  627 

'*  Of  course  not,  sir.  It  would  be  highly  unbecoming  in 
me  to  do  so." 

''And  greatly  to  your  disservice  besides,"  added  I, 
severely. 

He  bowed  in  acquiescence,  and  said  no  more. 

"How  long  have  you  served  my  father,  La  Grange?" 
asked  I. 

"  About  two  years,  sir.  I  succeeded  Mr.  Nixon,  sir,  who 
often  spoke  of  you." 

"  Ah,  I  remember  Nixon.     What  became  of  him?  " 

"  He  set  up  the  H6tel  Victoria  at  Spa,  sir.  You  know, 
sir,  that  he  married,  and  married  very  well  too?  " 

"  No,  I  never  heard  of  it,"  said  I,  carelessly. 

"  Yes,  sir ;  he  married  Delorme's  daughter,  la  belle  Pauline 
they  used  to  call  her  at  Brussels." 

' '  What,  Pauline  Delorme  ?  "  said  I,  growing  crimson  with 
I  know  not  what  feeling. 

"Yes,  sir,  the  same;  and  she's  the  size  of  old  Pierre, 
her  father,  already :  not  but  she 's  handsome  still,  —  but 
such  a  monster !  " 

I  cannot  say  with  what  delight  I  heard  of  her  disfigure- 
ment. It  was  a  malice  that  warmed  my  heart  like  some 
good  news. 

"  It  was  Sir  Roger,  sir,  that  made  the  match." 

"  How  could  that  be?     What  could  he  care  about  it?" 

"  Well,  sir,  he  certainly  gave  Nixon  five  hundred  pounds 
to  go  and  propose  for  her,  and  promise  old  Pierre  his  patron- 
age, if  he  agreed  to  it." 

"  Are  you  sure  of  this? "  asked  I,  eagerly. 

"  Nixon  himself  told  me,  sir.  I  remember  he  said,  '  I 
haven't  much  time  to  lose  about  it,  for  the  tutor,  Mr. 
Eccles,  is  quite  ready  to  take  her,  on  the  same  terms,  and 
Sir  Roger  does  n't  care  which  of  us  it  is. '  '^ 

"  Nor  the  lady  either,  apparently,"  said  I,  half  angrfly. 

"Of  course  not.  Pauline  was  too  well  brought  up  for 
that." 

I  was  not  going  to  discuss  this  point  of  ethics  with  Mr. 
La  Grange,  and  soon  fell  off  into  a  vein  of  reflection  over 
early  loves,  and  what  they  led  to,  which  took  me  at  last 
miles  away  from  Pauline  Delorme,  and  her  fascinations. 


628  THAT  BOY  OE  NORCOTT'S. 

I  would  have  liked  much  to  learn  what  sort  of  a  life  my 
father  had  led  of  late :  whether  he  had  plunged  into  habits 
of  dissipation  and  excess ;  or  whether  any  feeling  of  remorse 
had  weighed  with  him,  and  that  he  sorrowed  over  the 
misery  and  the  sorrow  he  had  so  recklessly  shed  around 
him;  but  I  shrunk  from  questioning  a  servant  on  such 
matters,  and  merely  asked  as  to  his  habitual  spirits  and 
temper. 

*'  Sir  Roger  was  unlike  every  other  gentleman  I  ever  lived 
with,  sir,"  said  he.  '' He  was  never  in  high  spirits  except 
when  he  was  hard  up  for  money.  Put  him  down  in  a  little 
country  inn  to  wait  for  his  remittances,  and  live  on  a  few 
francs  a  day  till  they  arrived,  and  I  never  saw  his  equal 
for  good  humor.  He  'd  play  with  the  children ;  he  'd  work 
in  the  garden.  I've  seen  him  harness  the  donkey,  and  go 
off  for  a  load  of  firewood.  There  's  nothing  he  would  not 
do  to  oblige,  and  with  a  kind  word  and  a  smile  for  every 
one  all  the  while ;  but  if  some  morning  he  'd  get  up  with 
a  dark  frown  on  his  face,  and  say,  '  La  Grange,  get  in 
your  bills  here,  and  pay  them ;  we  must  get  away  from 
this  dog-hole,'  I  knew  well  the  banker's  letter  had  come, 
and  that  whatever  he  might  want,  it  would  not  be  money." 

''And  had  my  Lady  —  Madame,  I  mean  —  no  influence 
over  him?" 

''None,  sir,  or  next  to  none;  he  was  all  ceremony  with 
her;  took  her  in  to  dinner  every  day  with  great  state, 
showed  her  every  attention  at  table,  left  her  at  liberty  to 
spend  what  money  she  liked.  If  she  fancied  an  equipage, 
it  was  ordered  at  once.  If  she  liked  a  bracelet,  it  was  sent 
home.  As  to  toilette,  I  believe  there  are  queens  have  not  as 
many  dresses  to  change.  We  had  two  fourgons  of  her  lug- 
gage alone,  when  we  came  to  the  Schloss,  and  she  was 
always  saying  there  was  something  she  was  longing  for." 

"  Did  not  this  irritate  my  father?  " 

"No,  sir;  he  would  simply  say,  'Don't  wish,  but  write 
for  it.'  And  I  verily  believe  this  indifference  piqued  her,  — 
she  saw  that  no  sacrifice  of  money  cost  him  anything,  and 
this  thought  wounded  her  pride." 

"  So  that  there  was  not  much  happiness  between  them?" 

"  There  was  none,  sir !     Something  there  was  that  Sir  Roger 


IN  SORROW.  629 

would  never  conseot  to,  but  which  she  never  ceased  to  insist 
on,  and  I  often  wondered  how  she  could  go  on,  to  press  a 
man  of  his  dangerous  temper,  as  she  did,  and  at  times  she 
would  do  so  to  the  very  verge  of  a  provocation.  Do  you 
know,  sir,"  said  he,  after  a  short  silence,  — ''  if  I  was  to  be 
on  my  oath  to-morrow,  I  'd  not  say  that  he  was  not  seeking 
his  death  when  he  met  it?  I  never  saw  a  man  so  sick  of 
life,  —  he  was  only  puzzled  how  to  lay  it  down  without 
dishonor." 

I  motioned  him  to  leave  me  as  he  said  this,  and  of  my 
father  I  never  spoke  to  him  more. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE   END. 

Two  telegrams  came  from  my  mother.  They  were  little 
other  than  repetitions.  She  had  been  ill,  and  was  impatient 
to  see  me.  In  the  last,  she  added  that  she  would  shorten  the 
distance  between  us  by  coming  to  Dublin  to  meet  me.  I 
was  to  inquire  for  her  at  "  Elridge's  Hotel." 

I  was  no  less  eager  to  be  with  her ;  but  there  were  many 
matters  of  detail  which  still  delayed  me.  First  of  all,  all  my 
father's  papers  and  effects  were  at  Schloss  Hunyadi,  and 
some  of  these  were  all-essential  to  me.  On  arriving  at  the 
Castle,  a  sealed  packet  addressed  Sir  Digby  Norcott,  Bart., 
in  Madame  Cleremont's  hand,  was  given  me.  On  opening, 
I  found  it  contained  a  bunch  of  keys,  without  one  word  of 
any  kind.  It  was  an  unspeakable  relief  to  me  to  discover 
that  she  had  not  sent  me  either  her  condolences  or  her 
threats,  and- 1  could  scarcely  reassure  myself  that  we  had 
parted  thus  easily. 

My  father's  personal  luggage  might  have  sufficed  for  half- 
a-dozen  people.  Not  only  did  he  carry  about  a  quantity  of 
clothes  that  no  ordinary  life  could  have  required,  but  that  he 
journeyed  with  every  imaginable  kind  of  weapon,  together 
with  saddlery  and  horse-gear  of  all  fashions  and  shapes. 
Fishing-tackle  and  hunting-spears  abounded ;  and  lassos  of 
Mexican  make  seemed  to  show  that  he  had  intended  to  have 
carried  his  experiences  to  the  great  Savannahs  of  the  West. 

From  what  I  had  seen  of  him,  I  was  in  no  way  prepared 
for  the  order  and  regularity  in  which  I  found  his  papers. 
All  that  regarded  his  money  matters  was  contained  in  one 
small  oak  desk,  in  which  T  found  a  will,  a  copy  of  which,  it 
was  stated,  was  deposited  with  Norton  and  Temple,  Solicitors, 
Furnival's  Inn.     The  document  ran  thus :  — 


THE  END.  631 

"  I  leave  whatever  I  may  die  possessed  of  in  personal  or  real 
property  to  the  wife  I  have  long  neglected,  in  trust  for  the  boy  I 
have  done  much  to  corrupt.  With  time,  and  in  the  enjoyment 
of  better  fortune,  they  may  learn  to  forgive  me  ;  but  even  if  they 
should  not,  it  will  little  trouble  the  rest  of Roger  Norcott. 

"  I  desire  that  each  of  my  servants  in  my  service  at  the  time  of 
my  death  should  receive  a  quarter's  wages;  but  no  present  or 
gratuity  of  any  kind.  It  is  a  class  that  always  served  me  with  fear 
and  dislike,  and  whose  services  I  ever  accepted  with  distrust  and 
repugnance. 

"  I  also  desire  that  my  retriever,  '  Spy,'  be  shot  as  soon  after  my 
death  as  may  be,  and  that  my  other  dogs  be  given  away  to  persons 
who  have  never  known  me,  and  that  my  heirs  will  be  particular  on 
this  head,  so  that  none  shall  pretend  that  they  inherit  this  or  that 
of  mine  in  token  of  friendship  or  affectionate  remembrance. 

"  There  are  a  few  objects  of  furniture  in  the  care  of  Salter,  the 
house-agent  at  Brussels,  of  which  I  beg  my  wife's  acceptance;  they 
are  intrinsically  of  little  value,  but  she  will  know  how  dearly  we 
have  both  paid  for  them.     This  is  all. 

(Signed)    "  Roger  Norcott,  Bart. 

♦*  Witnesses,  Joseph  Granes,  head  groom. 
"  Paul  Lanyon,  house-steward." 

This  will,  which  bore  for  date  only  four  months  prior 
to  his  death,  did  not  contain  any,  the  slightest,  allusion 
to  Madame  Cleremont.  Was  it  that  by  some  antecedent 
arrangement  he  had  taken  care  to  provide  for  her,  omitting, 
through  a  sense  of  delicacy  to  my  mother,  all  mention  of  her 
name  ?  This  I  could  not  guess  at  the  time,  nor  did  I  ever 
discover  afterwards. 

In  a  larger  desk  I  found  a  mass  of  letters ;  they  were  tied 
in  packets,  each  with  a  ribbon  of  a  different  color;  they 
were  all  in  women's  handwriting.  There  were  several  minia- 
tures on  ivory,  one  of  which  was  of  my  mother,  when  a  girl 
of  about  eighteen.  It  was  exceedingly  beautiful,  and  wore 
an  expression  of  girlish  innocence  and  frankness  positively 
charming.  On  the  back,  in  my  father's  hand,  there  was,  — 
' '  Why  won't  they  keep  this  look  ?  Is  the  fault  theirs  or 
ours  ?  " 

Of  the  contents  of  that  box,  I  committed  all  to  the  flames 
except  that  picture.     A  third  desk,  the  key  of  which  was 


632  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

appended  to  his  watch,  contained  a  manuscript  in  his  writing, 
headed  "My  Cleremont  Episode,  how  it  began,  and  how  it 
cannot  but  end."  1  own  it  pushed  my  curiosity  sorely  to 
throw  this  into  the  fire  without  reading  it ;  but  I  felt  it  would 
have  been  a  disloyalty  which,  had  he  lived,  he  never  would 
have  pardoned,  and  so  I  restrained  myself,  and  burned  it. 

One  box,  strongly  strapped  with  bands  of  brass,  and 
opening  by  a  lock  of  most  complicated  mechanism,  was 
filled  with  articles  of  jewelry,  not  only  such  trinkets  as  men 
affect  to  wear  in  shirt-studs  and  watch-pendants,  but  the 
costlier  objects  of  women's  wear;  there  were  rings  and 
charms,  bracelets  of  massive  make,  and  necklaces  of  great 
value.  There  was  a  diamond  cross,  too,  at  back  of  which 
was  a  locket,  with  a  braid  of  very  beautiful  fair  hair.  This 
looked  as  though  it  had  been  worn,  and  if  so,  how  had  it 
come  back  to  him  again  ?  by  what  story  of  sorrow,  perhaps 
of  death? 

If  a  sentiment  of  horror  and  loyalty  had  made  me  burn  all 
the  letters,  I  had  found  there  was  no  restraining  the  exercise 
of  my  imagination  as  to  these  relics,  every  one  of  which  I 
invested  with  some  story.  In  a  secret  drawer  of  this  box, 
was  a  considerable  sum  in  gold,  and  a  letter  of  credit  for  a 
large  amount  on  Escheles,  of  Vienna,  by  which  it  appeared 
that  he  had  won  the  chief  prize  of  the  Frankfort  lottery,  in 
the  spring  drawing ;  a  piece  of  fortune,  which,  by  a  line  in 
his  handwriting,  I  saw  he  believed  was  to  cost  him  dearly : 
' '  What  is  to  be  counterpoise  to  this  luck  ?  An  infidelity, 
or  a  sudden  death?  I  can't  say  that  either  affright  me,  but 
I  think  the  last  would  be  less  of  an  insult." 

In  every  relic  of  him,  the  same  tone  of  mockery  pre- 
vailed, —  an  insolent  contempt  for  the  world,  a  disdain 
from  which  he  did  not  exempt  himself,  went  through 
all  he  said  or  did ;  and  it  was  plain  to  see  that,  no  matter 
how  events  went  with  him,  he  always  sufficed  for  his  own 
unhappiness. 

What  a  relief  it  was  to  me  to  turn  from  this  perpetual 
scorn  to  some  two  or  three  letters  of  my  dear  mother's, 
written  after  their  separation  indeed,  but  in  a  spirit  of  such 
thorough  forgiveness,  and  with  such  an  honest  desire  for  his 
welfare,  that  I  only  wondered  how  any  heart  could   have 


THE  END.  633 

resisted  such  loving  generosity.  I  really  believe  nothing  so 
jarred  upon  him  as  her  humility.  Every  reference  to  their 
inequality  of  condition  seemed  to  affect  him  like  an  insult ; 
and  on  the  back  of  one  of  her  letters  there  was  written  in 
pencil,  *'  Does  she  imagine  I  ever  forget  from  what  I  took 
her;  or  that  the  memory  is  a  pleasant  one?" 

Mr.  La  Grange's  curiosity  to  learn  what  amount  of 
money  my  father  had  left  behind  him,  and  what  were  the 
dispositions  of  his  will,  pushed  my  patience  very  hard 
indeed.  I  could  not,  however,  exactly  afford  to  get  rid  of 
him,  as  he  had  long  been  intrusted  with  the  payment  of 
tradesmen's  bills,  and  he  was  in  a  position  to  involve  me  in 
great  difficulty,  if  so  disposed. 

At  last  we  set  out  for  England ;  and  never  shall  I  forget 
the  strange  effect  produced  upon  me  by  the  deference  my 
new  station  attracted  towards  me.  It  seemed  to  me  but 
yesterday  that  I  was  the  companion  of  poor  Hanserl,  of  the 
*'  yard ;  "  and  now  I  had  become,  as  if  by  magic,  one  of  the 
favored  of  the  earth.  The  fame  of  being  rich  spreads 
rapidly,  and  my  reputation  on  that  head  lost  nothing  through 
any  reserve  or  forbearance  of  my  valet.  I  was  an  object 
of  interest,  too,  as  the  son  of  that  daring  Englishman  who 
had  lost  his  life  so  heroically.  Heaven  knows  how  La 
Grange  had  related  the  tragic  incident,  or  with  what  embel- 
lishment he  had  been  pleased  to  adorn  it.  I  can  only  say 
that  half  my  days  were  passed  in  assuring  eager  inquirers 
that  I  was  neither  present  at  the  adventure,  nor  wounded  in 
the  affray ;  and  all  my  efforts  were  directed  to  proving  that 
I  was  a  most  insignificant  person,  and  without  the  smallest 
claim  to  interest  on  my  side. 

Arrived  in  London,  I  was  once  more  a  "personage;  "  at 
least,  to  my  'family  solicitors.  My  father's  will  had  been 
already  proved,  and  I  was  recognized  in  all  form  as  the 
heir  to  his  title  and  fortune.  They  were  eager  to  know 
would  I  restore  the  family  seat  at  Hexham.  The  Abbey 
was  an  architectural  gem  that  all  England  was  proud  of, 
and  I  was  eagerly  entreated  not  to  suffer  it  to  drop  into 
decay  and  ruin.  The  representation  of  the  borough  —  long 
neglected  by  my  family  —  only  needed  an  effort  to  secure  ; 
and  would  I  not  like  the  ambition  of  a  parliamentary  life? 


^34  THAT  BOY  OF  NORCOTT'S. 

What  glimpses  of  future  greatness  were  shown  me !  what 
possible  chances  of  this  or  that  attained  that  would  link  me 
with  real  rank  forever !  And  all  this  time  I  was  pining  to 
clasp  my  mother  to  my  arms ;  to  pour  out  my  whole  heart 
before  her,  and  tell  her  that  I  loved  a  pale  Jewish  girl,  silent 
and  half  sad-looking,  but  whose  low  soft  voice  still  echoed 
within  my  heart,  and  whose  cold  hand  had  left  a  thrill  after 
its  touch  that  had  never  ceased  to  move  me. 

''  Oh,  Digby,  my  own,  own  darling,"  cried  she,  as  she 
hugged  me  in  her  arms,  '*  what  a  great  tall  fellow  you 
have  grown,  and  how  like  —  how  like  him !  "  and  she  burst 
into  a  torrent  of  tears,  renewed  every  time  that  she  raised 
her  eyes  to  my  face,  and  saw  how  I  resembled  my  father. 
There  seemed  an  ecstasy  in  this  grief  of  which  she  never 
wearied,  and  day  after  day  she  would  sit  holding  my  hand, 
gazing  wistfully  at  me,  and  only  turning  away  as  her  tear- 
ful eyes  grew  dim  with  weeping.  I  will  not  dwell  on  the 
days  we  passed  together;  full  of  sorrow  they  were,  but  a 
sorrow  so  hallowed  by  affection  that  we  felt  an  unspeak- 
able calm  shed  over  us. 

My  great  likeness  to  my  father,  as  she  first  saw  him,  made 
her  mind  revert  to  that  period,  and  she  never  ceased  to 
talk  of  that  time  of  hope  and  happiness.  Ever  ready  to 
ascribe  anything  unfavorable  in  his  character  to  the  evil 
influences  of  others,  she  maintained  that  though  occasion- 
ally carried  away  by  hot  temper  and  passion,  he  was  not 
only  the  soul  of  honor  but  had  a  heart  of  tenderness  and 
gentleness.  Curious  to  find  out  what  sudden  change  of  mind 
had  led  him  after  years  of  neglect  and  forgetf ulness  to  renew 
his  relations  with  her,  by  remitting  money  to  her  banker, 
we  examined  all  that  we  could  of  his  letters  and  papers  to 
discover  a  clew  to  this  mystery.  Baffled  in  all  our  endeav- 
ors, we  were  driven  at  length  to  write  to  the  Frankfort 
banker  through  whom  the  letter  of  credit  had  come.  As  we 
assumed  to  say  that  the  money  should  be  repaid  by  us, 
in  this  way  hoping  to  trace  the  history  of  the  incident,  we 
received  for  answer,  that,  though  bound  strictly  to  secrecy 
nt  the  time,  events  had  since  occurred  which  in  a  measure 
removed  that  obligation.  The  advance,  he  declared,  came 
from  the  house  of  Hodnig  and  Oppovich,  Fiume,  who  having 


THE  END.  635 

failed  since  that  time,  there  was  no  longer  the  same  necessity 
for  reserve.  *'  It  is  only  this  morning,"  he  added,  ''  that 
we  have  received  news  of  the  death  of  Herr  Ignaz  Oppovich, 
the  last  of  this  once  opulent  firm,  now  reduced  to  utter 
ruin." 

My  mother  and  I  gazed  on  each  other  in  silence  as  we 
read  these  words,  when  at  length  she  threw  her  arms  around 
me  and  said,  "  Let  us  go  to  her,  Digby ;  let  us  set  out  this 
very  day." 

Two  days  after  we  were  on  the  Rhine.  I  was  seated 
with  my  mother  on  the  deck  of  a  river  steamer,  when  I  was 
startled  to  hear  a  voice  utter  my  name.  The  speaker  was  a 
burly  stout  man  of  middle  age,  who  walked  the  deck  with  a 
companion  to  whom  he  talked  in  a  loud  tone. 

''I  tell  you,  sir,"  said  he,  "  that  boy  of  Norcott's,  what 
between  those  new  coal-fields  and  the  Hexham  property, 
can't  have  less  than  ten  thousand  a  year." 

''  And  he's  going  to  marry  a  rich  Austrian  Jewess,  they 
say,"  replied  the  other,  "as  if  his  own  fortune  was  not 
enough  for  him." 

''He'll  marry  her,  and  desert  her  just  as  his  father 
did." 

I  have  but  to  say  that  I  accomplished  one  part  of  this 
prediction,  and  hope  never  to  fulfil  the  other. 


THE  END. 


,,^      OF  THE 

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LD  21-100m-12, '43  (8796s) 


Kl^U<L 


193058 


